Parents File Wrongful Death Suit Against Connecticut Town after Collapse of 5-Year-Old Son
Romeo D. Pierre Louis was playing outside during recess on April 5, 2022. When the 5-year-old student collapsed on the playground that morning, teachers did not respond right away.
Louis died two days later of a rare heart condition.
Now his parents are pursing legal action against the Connecticut town where this happened.
D’Meza Shultz Pierre Louis and Chantel Pierre Louis are suing West Hartford and the West Hartford Board of Education, claiming negligence and to “recover damages for the wrongful death of their son.” According to court documents, nearly 10 minutes passed before teachers checked on 5-year-old Louis who was unresponsive and not breathing; they thought he was “playing dead.”
D’Meza and Chantel Louis believed swift action could have save their child’s life. Several of Romeo’s classmates allegedly alerted the teachers, who were in close proximity that day, to his medical condition.
Friends and family gathered at West Hartford’s Charter Oak Academy to honor the life of Romeo a year after the tragedy.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking because it was completely and totally avoidable,” the family’s attorney Michael L. Chambers Jr. told The Washington Post. “As any parent who every morning drops their child off at school, there’s a certain level of trust we put in teachers’ and administrators’ hands. And that trust was absolutely broken.”
The Hartford Courant reported the state medical examiner named Romeo’s cause of death as “cardiac channelopathy, brugada syndrome (scn5a variant)“ and listed the manner of death as “natural.”
The police indicated there would be no further investigation.