CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- The parents of a 13-year-old Chesterfield student who died after choking on his lunch have questions about what happened to their son in his middle school cafeteria.
Josue Nolasco, 13, died Saturday, February 18, three days after he was taken to the hospital after he choked at Providence Middle School.
“When we got [to the hospital], they told us he had been unconscious for 20 minutes, and for those 20 minutes, his brain had not received oxygen," Josue's mother Karina Nolasco, who speaks Spanish, said via a translator. "When we went up, the police and the detective were waiting for us. They told us they were going to be investigating the school.”
When asked about the investigation, Chesterfield Police indicated they were treating the situation as a medical emergency. Police also shared that a school resource officer rendered aid to the child and Chesterfield Fire and EMS were called to the school at about 11:15 a.m. Josue arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later.
But some unanswered questions continue to bother Josue's grieving parents.
Chief among them, what kind of care did their son receive at school, when did that care begin, and how long did it take before someone called 9-1-1?
“At the hospital, they did blood work and they said that it wasn’t 20 minutes that he hadn’t received oxygen to the brain. It was actually 40 minutes," his mother said. "The doctor said that if it truly was the 20 minutes, that the school said, we might still have a child. Even if there were damages that were irreversible, he'd still be alive."
She added she was not looking to assign blame, she just wanted to know what happened.
Josue's parents said they have been overwhelmed by the support they have received from their community.
"We want people to know this story, principally because this pain that we feel, we don’t want anyone else to go through this," Josue's father Lee Harvey said through a translator. "We need people who are capable at school to be able to have some type of training and know what to do in these kinds of emergencies."
Questions posed about a timeline of events and the kind of care Josue received have not yet been answered by school leaders.
Chesterfield County Schools did initially email Providence Middle School parents to let them know about an incident at the school and later notified them about Josue's death.
"Why our child?" Karina Nolasco asked aloud. "He never did anything wrong to anyone.”
A friend of the family has set up a GoFundMe to help the family cover any funeral and memorial expenses. Click here to donate.
