EMS has no rule on minors

When the parents of Atlas Fraley found their son dead on the floor of their home Aug. 12, they had no idea that Orange County Emergency Medical Services had been there hours earlier.

Orange EMS gives responders little guidance on whether to notify parents when they treat a minor. While there is no statewide policy, nearby counties have procedures that require notification prior to treatment in non-life-threatening situations.

Fraley, 17, called 911 at 1:45 p.m. that day and asked for intravenous fluids in order to treat what he thought was dehydration.

"My body is hurting all over," Fraley told the emergency dispatch.

David and Malinda Fraley, who returned home at 6:30 p.m., first learned that EMS treated their son from a reporter.

"We don't know yet if they came out here or what they did, but they should have called me," Malinda Fraley said last week.

Orange County EMS is currently investigating the incident.

No policy is in place to give first responders guidance on whether to notify parents in Orange County before administering care. Responders determine whether to proceed with care on a case-by-case basis, said Capt. Kim Woodward, Orange EMS operations manager.

"You would use all the tools in your bag," she said. "You rely on your training, you rely on your ethics."

In Wake County, authorities have to make every attempt to contact a parent before a minor receives treatment, said Jeff Hammerstein, Wake County Emergency Medical Services district chief. That includes involving law enforcement in tracking down the parent.

When the parent can't be reached, Wake County EMS often turns to nearby hospitals for further direction on how to proceed.

Chatham County also notifies parents when it's possible, Robert Smith, operations supervisor for Chatham County FirstHealth EMS said last week.

Orange County policy says that responders can evaluate a minor without consent, but makes no mention of whether responders can treat a minor.

Every county decides for itself what it wants parental notification procedure to be, said Regina Godette-Crawford, assistant chief of administration at the N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services.

The N.C. College of Emergency Physicians has recommendations on many policies that counties can refer to, but doesn't mention procedure for parental notification of responding to a minor.

Medical personnel spent 22 minutes at Fraley's house at 202 Fan Branch Lane, according to a timeline released over the weekend.

Fraley, a rising senior and a star football player at Chapel Hill High School, had played in a football scrimmage earlier in the day.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.