Actions After Girl’s Collapse Called Proper

One day after a 13-year-old Sylmar girl collapsed at school and died, students described a disturbing scene in which she lay on the ground, turning purple, while a nurse tended to her and schoolmates prayed.

Vanessa Escobedo, an eighth-grader at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Reseda, was pronounced dead a short time later at a nearby hospital.

School officials and students said Vanessa collapsed about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday just outside the lunch area of the school, which has the largest magnet program in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

An employee saw the girl lying on her stomach on the ground and radioed school nurse Marge Gardner, said Tricia Chicagus, nursing coordinator for the district. Gardner immediately went to the girl’s side.

Chicagus said the nurse found Vanessa unconscious but still breathing. Gardner, a registered nurse who works full time at the school, found that the girl had a pulse, Chicagus said.

After unsuccessfully trying to get the girl to respond verbally, Gardner radioed the school’s office to dial 911, Chicagus said.

Several students said they saw the nurse take Vanessa by the hand and take her pulse at least once.

“[The girl] was trying to lift her head up. . . . she was moving around,” said Albina De Santiago, an 18-year-old senior from North Hollywood.

Gardner, a trained CPR instructor, did not administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation before paramedics arrived because it didn’t seem the girl needed it, Chicagus said.

“If someone collapses, it doesn’t mean they need CPR,” said Battalion Chief Daryl C. Arbuthnott of the Los Angeles Fire Department, at a news conference Wednesday in the school library. “If you do CPR when it’s not warranted, it can cause problems.”

According to LAUSD policy regarding students with medical issues, school personnel are required to immediately call 911, said Dan Isaacs, the district’s assistant superintendent of school operations. CPR is administered “if the situation warrants it,” he added.

In this case, the proper procedures were followed and “the school staff acted properly,” Isaacs said.

Several students who said they witnessed the incident said there were signs that something was seriously wrong with the girl well before paramedics arrived.

“She’s lying there . . . and she’s turning purple,” said a 10th-grader who asked not to be identified.

Despite those signs, some students made fun of the collapsed girl, laughing and joking--even taking pictures of the scene, several students said.

Their behavior “was the most barbaric thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” the 10th-grader said.

Not until a group of students began gathering in prayer and concern for the fallen girl did others realize that something was seriously wrong, said Teresa Scanlon, a 17-year-old senior from North Hollywood.

When paramedics arrived at the school about 12:43 p.m., less than five minutes after they received the call, they found a lifeless girl who was not breathing and had no pulse, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Fire Department.

Efforts to revive Vanessa at the school, and later at the hospital, were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center at 2:06 p.m., said Scott Carrier, spokesman for the county coroner’s office. The cause of death has not yet been established.

The school’s principal, Larry Rubin, said there was no prior indication that Vanessa had any health problems. Her health card on file with the school showed she had received all required immunizations.

On Tuesday, students and school employees placed flowers and balloons on the cement area where Vanessa had lain dying.

“It was devastating,” said student body president Rak Sam, a 17-year-old senior from Mission Hills. “It tears you apart to know what happened.”

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Times staff writer Irene Garcia contributed to this story.