Associated Press
WFTV.com
June 27, 2006
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. -- State juvenile justice authorities were conducting an internal investigation after a 14-year-old boy died after becoming ill at a DeSoto County Outward Bound camp for teen offenders, an official said Monday.
Dillon Peak of Punta Gorda died June 17 at a St. Petersburg hospital, a month after he became incoherent and suffered seizures at the camp.
His mother, Pamela Peak, is blaming the Department of Juvenile Justice, claiming the teen didn't get proper medical care at the outdoors camp for low-risk offenders ages 14 to 18.
She told the Charlotte Sun that she later learned her son was hospitalized twice in four days. The first time he was suffering from strep throat and had a 104-degree fever, she said. He was given Tylenol and sent back to the Outward Bound camp where he was staying with several other boys in a tent.
Pamela Peak said her son's doctors have theorized the boy had a rare type of encephalitis on top of the strep throat.
An autopsy is being conducted by the Pinellas County medical examiner's office, but results aren't expected for about six weeks, spokesman Bill Pellan said Monday.
"I can tell you there's no indication of any trauma or anything like that," Pellan said. "It appears to be something medical."
Department of Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Cynthia Lorenzo said the internal review was to confirm the situation was handled appropriately. An environmental specialist investigated afterward and found no signs of anything contagious at the camp, she said.
"Early indications are that everything was handled appropriately," said Lorenzo. "All indications suggest that the tragic death was due to a medical condition."
Citing confidentiality laws, Lorenzo declined to discuss details of Dillon's illness or how it was handled at the camp.
Dillon, who moved with his mother to a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer park after Hurricane Charley damaged their home in 2004, was sent to the Outward Bound camp for six months after he and some other boys stole a golf cart from an apartment complex, and he also got caught trespassing, his mother said.
She said she was driving to the camp to pick him up May 17 when she got a call from camp administrators saying her son was hospitalized. He slipped into a coma sometime after that.
