Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.
Otis Pimpleton Jr. sat next to his son Tuesday afternoon at the Sunrise Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, frustrated by what he called missteps at football practice.
On Saturday, Otis Pimpleton III, a 15-year-old Chaparral High School sophomore, was practicing on Day 3 of what his coach called "Hell Week" when he succumbed to heat stroke. Whether the coaching staff and trainers acted properly when Pimpleton showed signs of fatigue is a point of contention.
"At the end of conditioning, he felt bad, went down and threw up," Chaparral coach Fernando Carmona said. "The trainers took care of him, made sure he was fine, called his parents, and they couldn't make it."
Pimpleton Jr. said the call from the trainers shouldn't have been to come get his son, but should have been to meet him at the hospital.
"From what was said, he passed out as he was running the stairs," he said. "The coach said he can go get water after he runs the bleachers three times. The coach has no reason to send a kid off the field incoherent. He should have called 911, and he should have sent the kid to the ER."
A Chaparral athletic administrator reached Tuesday would say only that he thought, preliminarily, that all protocol had been followed. Jim Porter, regional outreach coordinator for HealthSouth, which handles the high school's trainers, also said this morning that all protocol had been followed.
Pimpleton III was taken out of intensive care about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Carmona, reached late Tuesday, declined to comment on the father's criticism. But earlier Tuesday, Carmona, in his first year as head coach at the high school he graduated from in 1981, said he wanted to set the record straight.
"The kid actually showed up to Hell Week Day 1, and quit after about 40 minutes," Carmona said. "Dad came to the coaching staff on Day 2, and asked if we could give his kid another chance, because he really wanted to play football. He came out the third day, and the kid was doing quite well."
But after Pimpleton succumbed during conditioning, the decision was made to call the family.
"We suggested to his aunt that they take him to the hospital," Carmona said. "At that time, he was refusing help, and they said, 'We'll just take him home.' When they got home is when they ended up calling 911 and they picked him up."
Carmona said Pimpleton Jr. told him that his son had to have his blood pressure taken three times to pass his physical.
"He was really dehydrated and close to heat stroke," Carmona said. "One of the weird things about it was that Saturday was actually a beautiful day. It's a matter of a kid being extremely out of shape."
Porter said that one of the key reasons that students must take physicals is to detect conditions that might hamper a student's ability to safely participate in a sport.
"One of the biggest issues is always high blood pressure," Porter said. "Someone with high blood pressure is significantly more prone to heat illnesses."
Pimpleton was practicing to be a lineman on the Cowboys' junior varsity team.
Carmona said there wasn't much more that he thought the coaching staff could have done to prevent the situation, and explained the staff's open-water policy at practices.
"As long as you're thirsty, go drink water. Even during conditioning, they can go get water," he said. "Kids were allowed to get water, the kids are even allowed to carry their own water bottle around as long as they want."
More than being frustrated by the coach's training regimen, the elder Pimpleton said he wants a change in the way incidents like his son's are handled. He said that after his son recovered, he did refuse medical attention, and was driven in a cart to meet his 18-year-old sister, who took him home. When he arrived at Sunrise Hospital, his father said, Pimpleton III's temperature was 107.6.
"How much of a problem should there be before he goes to the emergency room?" he said. "If you can't treat it, it's an emergency. There's no way a minor can tell you he doesn't want or need attention."
Porter said that when a case of heat stroke is diagnosed, trainers will always call 911.
"Someone who presents the symptoms of heat stroke, it's a medical emergency comparable to cardiac arrest," he said. "We call 911 first and then call the parent."
Porter added that 11 days ago, all HealthSouth trainers in Las Vegas met to discuss heat illnesses.
Clark County School District athletic director Bill Garis said Tuesday that diagnosis of heat stroke isn't an exact science.
"The position from our office is, it sounds like we had the right personnel in place," he said. "From what I understand, the trainer on duty felt like the student was at a point where he could safely go home and be OK, and I guess he took a turn for the worse while he was at home. Those diagnoses aren't always perfect."
Porter said that parents also need to be aware of a child's limits. He said there's a growing problem of parents trying to get their kids to play football as a way to lose weight.
"A kid should play football so he loses weight -- that's truly an erroneous position," he said.
Pimpleton III was listed in good condition late Tuesday.
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