Jonathan Jewth, a 9-year-old boy from Bronx, New York, died after choking on a meatball in his school lunch as staff members were unable to save him.
Jonathan Jewth died on Wednesday, nine days after falling to the lunchroom floor in a choking fit.
Khemwati Jewth, the boy’s mother, has hit out at the school for failing to perform the necessary first aid on her dying son.
The devastated mother told the New York Daily News: “If something had been done differently, my son would’ve been alive today.
“They’re saying that they did everything, but others are saying that there was no one around at the time.”
According to various accounts, Jonathan Jewth was laughing with other students, eating a meatball sandwich, when he began to choke.
“They have provided her with scant information regarding the disastrous event that has transpired and until now she is relying on information provided by individuals who claim to have witnessed some or all of the events,” Howard Frederick, an attorney for Jonathan Jewth’s mother, told NBC4.
Witnesses of Jonathan Jewth’s struggle claim that the emergency response by the public school’s faculty members was “unskilled, unqualified and chaotic”, according to Howard Frederick.
“A parent happened to be there after the child passed out and was trying to help. They went to summon the nurse, an older person who could not do the Heimlich,” family member Indira Ramrup told the Daily News about their recount.
“They sent for a teacher and then a teacher came, and a parent stepped forward to do the Heimlich, but by then the child was on the ground and it was too late,” Indira Ramprup said.
One witness claims to the family’s attorney that three faculty members, including a school nurse, flipped the student side-to-side while performing CPR on him.
When the witness says they were “shaken by what she observed”, she “felt it was necessary to yell instruction to the staff because they clearly did not know what they were doing”, according to Howard Frederick’s statement to NBC4.
There is also a discrepancy on the time the incident was reported, by both the 911 dispatch and the school’s records.
Khemwati Jewth has said the school reported the time of the incident being at 12:15pm and that they called the police exactly one minute later, at 12:16 p.m.
But NBC4 says they have since learned from speaking to the New York Fire Department, that 911 dispatch was called by the school at 12:29 p.m.
According to the FDNY, they were at the scene four minutes later and the student e arrived at the Jacobi Medical Center at 12:48 p.m. in critical condition.
That was December 5th, but after laying in a coma for nine days, Jonathan Jewth died this Wednesday.
With witness accounts and school reports not adding up, Khemwati Jewth plans to file intent to sue the school next week.
At the very least, her attorney says she wants to know what happened to her boy.
“Ms. Jewth is committed to finding the truth and has indicated that she will not rest until she knows exactly what happened to her only child,” Howard Frederick said in a statement.
A responding statement by the schools’ chancellor Dennis Walcott read: “Tragically, a student passed away and my heart goes out to the family and the school community.”
“I don’t have words to describe how I feel right now. Nobody can even understand what I am going through,” Khemwati Jewth has said since, who working as a house keeper, says she hasn’t been able to return to her job since her son was admitted to the hospital.
