June 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 36

L AW R E V I E W

player. Abel tried to speak to Busatta,
but within three minutes of the collapse, he appeared to stop breathing
and lost consciousness. Busatta was
unable to detect a pulse. An administrator from Riverdale High School,
who called 911, and two parents in
the stands, who were nurses, joined
Busatta on the field. Busatta and one
nurse began to perform CPR on Abel.
Busatta, who was certified in the use
of an AED, testified that he yelled for
the device. The AED in the possession of Riverdale High School was
actually at the game facility located
at the end of the soccer field, but it
was never brought to Busatta to assist
in reviving Abel on the field.
Emergency responders from the
fire department arrived at approximately 7:50 p.m. and applied their
semi-automatic AED to revive Abel,
but that was not unsuccessful. Next,
responders from the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) arrived and utilized a fully automatic AED on Abel
and also administered several drugs
in an attempt to restore his heartbeat. After application of shocks and
34 Parks & Recreation

drugs, emergency responders revived
Abel, but not until approximately
8:06 p.m., 26 minutes after his initial
collapse. Although Abel survived, he
suffered a severe brain injury due to
a lack of oxygen over the time delay
involved. As a result, he now remains
in a nearly persistent vegetative state
that will require full-time care for the
remainder of his life.
Negligence Complaint
In the complaint, plaintiff alleged
the School Board of Lee County
" breached both a common-law duty
and a statutory duty as imposed by
section 1006.165, Florida Statutes
(2008) when it failed to apply an
AED on Abel after his collapse. " At
the time, Section 1006.165, Florida
Statutes required " all public schools
that participate in the Florida High
School Athletic Association to acquire an AED, train personnel in its
use and register its location with the
local EMS. "
In the opinion of plaintiff 's medical expert, Abel " would not have
suffered the brain injury that left

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him in the current permanent vegetative state...if shocks from an AED
had been administered earlier, oxygen would have been restored to
Abel's brain sooner. "
The school board moved for summary judgment, which the trial court
granted and entered final judgment
in favor of the school board. Limones
appealed.
The appeals court recognized that
the school board " owed a duty to
supervise its students, which in the
context of student athletes included
a duty to prevent aggravation of an
injury. " In so doing, the appeals court
considered and evaluated whether
post-injury efforts in connection with
satisfying the duty to Abel should
have included making available, diagnosing the need for, or using an
AED. In the opinion of the appeals
court, " reasonably prudent post-injury efforts did not require [the school
board]...to provide, diagnose the
need for, or use an AED. " The state
supreme court granted Limones' petition to review this decision.
Negligence Legal Duty
As noted by the state supreme court,
" a plaintiff must establish the four
elements of duty, breach, proximate
causation and damages " in order " to
succeed on a claim of negligence. "
While the court would determine
" the existence of a duty, " the state
supreme court acknowledged the
jury would apply this legal standard
to determine whether or not the conduct of a particular defendant constituted negligence. Moreover, the court
noted that the judicial " inquiry necessary to establish a duty is limited. "
The court must simply determine
whether a statute, regulation or the
common law imposes a duty of care
upon the defendant. The judicial

June 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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