More records given to family of Riverview High student with special needs after choking death
RIVERVIEW, Fla. - New information is coming to light about what happened to a Riverview High School senior who died after her parents said she choked on a meatball at school. Records the district released to the family Tuesday reveal what happened in those frantic moments and how staff members responded.
Since birth, 18-year-old Kamilyah Omar has been a walking miracle in her mother's eyes.
"She was a superstar. Point blank. Period. Superstar," Kamilyah's mother Khalilah Omar and step-father Marcus Williams said.
She was born with cerebral palsy, a group of disorders that affects a person's ability to move and maintain balance. In some cases, children with cerebral palsy may have difficulties eating and drinking.
"She doesn't have the absolute feeling of touch, hurt," Khalilah Omar said.
As she explains, cerebral palsy can make it difficult to coordinate the muscles of the tongue and back of the throat that help you swallow your food without choking. It's why her parents always kept a close eye on her at the dinner table.
"We would cut her food up and make sure she wasn't swallowing any big pieces. Whole pieces. Mouthfuls. Food that she can swallow. Just enough to where she could chew," Williams said.
Last Wednesday, October 26, Omar got a call from the school nurse saying Kamilyah was having a seizure in the cafeteria and that paramedics were taking her to the hospital. When Omar got to St. Joseph's South she learned Kamilyah had already had three hearts attacks and that doctors had discovered a meatball lodged in her throat.
Once it was removed, she had a fourth heart attack and was placed on life-support. She died two days later with her whole family by her bedside.
"The standard of what a child with IEP should have I feel like I didn't get what I was supposed to get," Omar said.
In a meeting Monday, Williams said the Riverview High School principal told him the Heimlich maneuver was performed on Kamilyah in the cafeteria. Afterwards the principal gave the family a one-page document which stated, "Student was having a seizure, then she went unresponsive."
Tuesday, the principal turned over three more pages of records to the family.
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One was signed as recent as Tuesday which stated, "abdominal thrusts attempted in case of choking." Another document showed it was created on Oct. 27 the day after the choking incident and then amended by the school nurse on Oct. 28. It stated two nurses "began completing abdominal thrust on the student. After at least four abdominal thrust, the student was then assisted back down to the floor."
"You have protocols and precautions in place to make sure things like this don't happen," Omar said.
Omar said Kamilyah's previous school in Maryland provided a one-on-one aide who was by her side at all times, including during lunch. At Riverview High School, her parents said she shared an aide with other special needs students.
Kamilyah's mother said her daughter's needs weren't met.
"She's been there for three years," Williams said. "You should already know how the student is."
Her parents are now pleading for any students who were with Kamilyah during lunch to come forward. It's unclear if any surveillance cameras captured the incident.
Due to FERPA and student privacy laws, the district isn't offering any comment.