Student injures prompts protocol questions

At approximately 9 a.m. on April 27, a male student in Professor Farag Attia’s Statistics 451 class tripped on his way up the stairs in 71 Cramer Hall when his left knee gave out, according to the Campus Public Safety Office report.

“It was just a random accident and didn’t seem like that big of a deal until people noticed that he couldn’t get up,” classmate Julie Partain said.

A classmate attending to the student called 911 while another called CPSO, which in turn called 911 and the Center for Student Health and Counseling.

“The kid was white as a sheet. You could see his injury through his jeans,” Partain said. “The fact that he wasn’t bawling, I think, says a lot about him.”

Within about 10 minutes, by Partain’s estimate, paramedics from Emergency Medical Services arrived, followed swiftly by a CPSO officer who supervised the scene. The paramedics assessed the injured student, gave him pain medication, loaded him onto a gurney, wheeled him out of the classroom and transported him to Oregon Health & Science University for treatment.

The student, who could not be reached for comment, was cleared at 9:26 a.m., the report said.

According to Michael Soto, director of CPSO, Attia felt that there was a sufficient level of support for the injured student such that the professor did not feel the need to intervene and chose to continue his lecture.

A controversy surrounds the incident, however, involving the lack of specific university policy for handling in-class medical emergencies. Soto said that a professor is not currently obligated to call 911 or otherwise intervene in such situations.

“There is no official university procedure for addressing something like this,” said Lindsey Craven, staff member from the Office of the Dean of Student Life, in an e-mail.

Attia confirmed that, short of a shooting, a professor has no established protocol to rely on when a medical emergency arises.

Certain basic emergency guidelines always apply for faculty, staff and students, Soto said. Many of these guidelines involve refraining from certain actions so as not to make the situation worse. For example, university employees should not move an injured individual or render first aid without formal training. Of course, witnesses should call 911 as soon as possible.

Soto said that since the incident, though not because of it, CPSO has felt the need to form a more comprehensive response procedure to in-class emergencies.

Beginning next week, Soto and his team will either give presentations on the subject to department chairs who will then pass the message down the faculty pyramid, or deliver the presentation personally to professors, instructors, teaching and graduate assistants and other university staff.

The object of Soto’s presentation is to clearly and thoroughly spell out a standard protocol to guide immediate action in emergency response situations, thereby making CPSO’s job easier as emergencies unfold. Professors and their students will understand the rules they are obligated to follow and the roles they are expected to perform. The protocol will hold for medical emergencies, fires, locks downs, cases involving suspicious persons and other campus disturbances.

In his presentation, Soto will recommend that every professor’s syllabus include delegating certain responsibilities to students in order to maximize emergency management.

“Either you’ll know what to do or you’ll have someone there to take over for you,” Soto said.

From the beginning of every term, for example, there should be at least one student in every class whose duty is to dial 911, with another student preparedto cover for the first should he or she be absent. In this way, a more rigid emergency protocol will be in place because professors and students alike will know exactly what to do when crisis conditions develop.

According to Soto, CPSO often functions as an intermediary between the emergency itself and EMS dispatch. With medical issues, however, it is recommended that witnesses at the scene simply bypass the CPSO and call 911 directly. ?