Competing Theories Explain Teen's Restraint-Related Death
By Jonathan Osborne
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, May 18, 2003
 Dallas
attorney Charles Moody holds a basketball
and a portrait of his son Chase Moody. Chase died
at a wilderness camp last October after being restrained
(more pictures below)
On the morning of Oct. 15, Travis County's deputy medical examiner
Dr. Elizabeth Peacock performed Chase Moody's autopsy on contract
for the justice of the peace in Mason County.
Because the incident occurred outside her
jurisdiction, Peacock by law could not rule on the manner of death —
natural, homicide, suicide, etc. — only the cause.
Her opinion: Chase essentially choked on the
contents of his stomach as his airways were being forcefully blocked
by pressure placed on his torso, a cause of death clinically
referred to as traumatic asphyxiation.
The Brown Schools, the wilderness camp's
owners, disputes that pressure was ever placed on Chase's back, as
was suggested by the state's report and the autopsy.
The company hired its own expert — Bexar County
Chief Medical Examiner Vincent DiMaio — to review Peacock's work.
DiMaio, who reviewed Peacock's autopsy report but never examined the
body, opined: "Traumatic asphyxia has become a catch-all cause of
death in a broad range of cases. In this particular case, the highly
excited state of the young man caused a major cardiac arrhythmia,
and it was the subsequent stoppage of the heart that resulted in the
involuntary release of the patient's stomach contents. Based on my
experience, it's very clear that it was this stoppage of the heart
that caused the fatality, and not the asphyxia noted in the report
issued by the Travis County Medical Examiner's office."
In other words, DiMaio contends that Chase died
of a condition known as excited, or agitated delirium — a condition
typically associated with speed or cocaine addicts, not 17-year-old
athletes.
But in the world of restraint-related deaths,
this disagreement — traumatic asphyxia vs. excited delirium — is not
a new or uncommon argument. And in the end, when it comes to
restraint-related deaths, it may not matter: Lack of oxygen plays a
supporting or starring role in either cause of death.
An April 2002 study by Protection and Advocacy
Inc. in California suggests that "sudden death during prone
restraint, particularly for those in a state of agitated delirium .
. . is not an uncommon phenomenon. The mechanism of death is a
sudden fatal cardiac arrhythmia or respiratory arrest due to a
combination of factors causing decreased oxygen delivery at a time
of increased oxygen demand."
The study, which suggests all forms of prone
restraints be banned because of their deadly potential, suggests
excited delirium is instead more likely a contributing factor to
positional or traumatic asphyxia, where outside pressure or the
position of the body interferes with one's ability to breathe.
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Mason County
Sheriff M. J. Metzger surveys
the spot where 17-year-old Chase Moody died
last year after being restrained by counselors at
the On Track therapeutic wilderness program.
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The road
leading into the Mason Mountain Wildlife
Preserve where Chase Moody died last October after
being restrained by counselors at a Brown Schools
wilderness program called On Track.
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Chase Moody poses in his
football uniform in 1999. Moody died last October after
being restrained at a
Mason County wilderness program run by
the Brown Schools.
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This Jan. 2002
photo of Charles Moody and his son Chase was taken at the
family's stable.
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Charles Moody
and his wife, Tina, leave the
hearing room in the
Capitol Annex where he
testified in April about the death of his
son at a wilderness camp near Mason.
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Chase Moody's stepmother
Tina Moody hugs Salvador Sanchez after a state senate
hearing on proposed legislation that would regulate
restraint methods. Sanchez's 14-year-old niece, Maria
Mendoza, died just two days before Chase's death after being
placed in a restraint by staff members at Krause Children's
Center in Katy. |
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