THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 67 lines
The mother of a Norfolk Academy student who died last year after catching a fatal disease at a track meet is suing the school where the meet took place.
The lawsuit claims that DeShannon A. Taylor, 16, died because officials at Episcopal High School in Alexandria did not warn other schools after the meet that their athletes may have been exposed to meningococcal disease.
The lawsuit says Episcopal officials learned three days after the meet that one of their own student-athletes had the disease, but did not call the other 13 participating schools. The Episcopal student later died of the disease.
Taylor started showing signs of the disease on Feb. 16, 1995, five days after the track meet. He died one month later. The disease is treatable if it is caught quickly. Otherwise, it can lead to meningitis or blood poisoning.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Norfolk Circuit Court, seeks $7 million in damages from Episcopal High School. It names no other defendants. Lawyers who filed the lawsuit, Edwin J. Rafal and James C. Lewis, declined to comment.
Officials at Episcopal High School did not return phone calls Wednesday.
The school probably will try to have the lawsuit thrown out on grounds of charitable immunity. Generally, nonprofit charities are immune from lawsuits for simple negligence.
Charities can be successfully sued, however, for gross negligence, which is utter disregard for the health and safety of others. The lawsuit accuses Episcopal High School of gross negligence. It was filed by DeShannon Taylor's mother, Gale D. Taylor of Virginia Beach.
Meningococcal disease is a bacterial infection that strikes mainly children and young people. To get it, one must have direct contact with discharges from the nose and throat, by sharing food or utensils or by someone sneezing in your face.
The bacteria is very common. About 20 to 60 percent of the population carries it in their throats or noses, but most people are unaffected by it. Sometimes it can lead to meningitis, which is inflammation of the brain's lining, or meningococcemia, which is blood poisoning. Taylor and the Episcopal student both died of blood poisoning.
If a child is diagnosed early and gets treated, the death rate is less than 10 percent, an assistant state epidemiologist said last year.
It is rarely fatal. Last year, there were 64 cases throughout Virginia, resulting in five deaths, including the two high school students. The numbers were similar in 1994.
Health officials have said the high school cases stemmed from the track meet on Feb. 11, 1995. Fourteen schools participated. Norfolk Academy was the only Hampton Roads school.
State law does not require schools to inform other schools after an outbreak of meningococcal disease.
They do, however, have to tell the state Health Department. Officials at Episcopal High apparently did that.
After Taylor contracted the disease, the Health Department recommended that athletes who were at the track meet get antibiotic treatment.
Apparently it was too late for Taylor. A pediatrician saw him the day he became sick, but mistook the illness for ordinary flu, which has similar symptoms. The boy got much worse the next day.
A month later, a second Norfolk Academy student got the disease, but he was treated quickly and recovered.
At that time, health officials recommended that everyone at the school - students and staff - get antibiotic treatments.
A lawsuit represents only one side of a dispute. The high school has 30 days to file its reply. ILLUSTRATION: B/W photo
Taylor
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE FATALITY by CNB