Fraley’s paramedic keeps credentials

Story reprinted from June 4 issue of The Daily Tar Heel.


The paramedic who responded to a high school football player who died shortly after being provided with care will still be allowed to keep his credentials.

A seven-member disciplinary review board with decided unanimously to take no action against the credentials of Orange County paramedic James Griffin, who responded to Chapel Hill High football player Atlas Fraley.

But Griffin cannot work in Orange County without repeating his training.

Atlas Fraley, 17, died Aug. 12 after Griffin, along with a fourth-year medical student, responded to Fraley’s complaints of dehydration and cramping all over his body.

Griffin advised Fraley to continue to drink fluids and to work out his cramps. He then allowed Fraley to sign his own release form, despite his lawful status as a minor.

Fraley’s parents found their son dead in their home later that night.

A report released Monday by the state office of EMS stated that while Griffin violated Orange County protocol during his response to Fraley’s call, he did not act incompetently under state regulations.

“We were not investigating Orange County, we were looking at Griffin,” said Drexdal Pratt, chief of the state office of EMS.

Pratt said the board’s decision rotated around two main issues. The first was that Jane Brice, Orange County EMS medical director, found Griffin to be a competent paramedic.

After reviewing Griffin’s actions, Brice terminated the paramedic’s practice privileges in Orange County later that August. According to the report, Brice said she had never had a paramedic violate so many protocols at once.

Brice later said that she believed Griffin was capable of being a paramedic anywhere except Orange County, due to the higher standard of service it holds for its paramedics.

The second reason Pratt gave was that the medical report did not indicate that Griffin’s actions directly contributed to Fraley’s death.

Fraley’s autopsy report concluded that the cause of death was “undetermined natural causes.”

Pratt said the state stood by its decision even though the board had not received some of the information it requested, including a report from the medical student who accompanied Griffin.

“We thought we had enough based on interviews to not pursue that any farther,” he said.

Other information not released to the state includes records from the phone Griffin said he used to call Fraley’s parents while on the scene.

Fraley famliy attorney Donald Strickland said the family is preparing to take legal action against Griffin and Orange County Emergency Medical Services, but he did not mention a specific date.