Heart Condition Blamed for Girl’s Death

A 13-year-old girl who collapsed in her school cafeteria and died in March probably suffered from an irregular heartbeat that struck without warning, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Monday.

Toxicology, neuropathology and microbiological tests ruled out foul play or improper medical attention in connection with the March 7 collapse of ninth-grader Vanessa Escobedo at the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, said coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier. The conclusions support an earlier finding by the Los Angeles Fire Department that a school nurse made the right decision by not administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Dr. Kevin Shannon, a pediatric cardiologist at Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, said the diagnosis is both vague and, most likely, accurate.

“Sudden death in otherwise healthy young people is rare,” Shannon said of the condition that affects only one child in 10 million. “An irregular heartbeat is almost the only diagnosis that does not show up in an autopsy. You come to this conclusion by eliminating all the other choices.”