Teenager Trapped in Minivan is Abandoned After Calling 911 | Kyle Plush Case Analysis

hell this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Kyle plush just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background this case move to the timeline of the incident and offer my analysis Kyle was born on September 30 2001 and was raised in Cincinnati Ohio he lived with his parents Ronald and Jill plush and his sister Ally Kyle suffered from a spinal cord injury at 4 months old and had emergency surgery he had serious medical complications for the rest of his life for example he was not able to use his right hand Kyle was described as friendly gregarious responsible mature and intelligent he spent many hours playing with Lego bricks he was a boy scout and wanted to be an eagle scout someday in the spring of 2018 Kyle was a sophomore at the Seven Hills School on Red Bank Road in Cincinnati Ohio now moving to the timeline of the incident on April 10 2018 16-year-old Kyle plush drove a 2004 Honda Odyssey Minivan to the Seven Hills School he parked the minivan at the North end of a thrift store parking lot about 350 ft away from the front of the store this parking lot was also known as the sophomore parking lot after attending school Kyle returned to the minivan to retrieve his tennis equipment for a match being held that afternoon at this point a tragic and unusual event took place in the minivan the 2004 Honda Odyssey is equipped with three rows of seats the third row seat is a bench seat positioned all the way in the back of the vehicle above the rear axle this seat is designed to fold and flip backward into a space in the floor just inside the rear hatch this gives the user of the minivan more flexibility for storing Cargo in the vehicle Kyle sat on this third row bench seat with the back rest portion of the seat folded flat so he was Seated on the rear part of the backr Kyle did this so he could put his shoes on to play tennis in this position the bottom part of the seat should have been latched even though the back rest could be flipped upward and locked in place for use as a seat unfortunately the seat was not latched a spare tire that was positioned between the second row seats may have prevented the third row seat from latching at one point during his effort to put on his shoes Kyle turned around and reached into the rear of the minivan for his shoe he was reaching into the same area where the third row seat would be stored when it wasn't being used as Kyle reached for the shoe the entire third row seat flipped back and pinned him against the rear hatch of the minivan he went head first into the storage area in the back it's not clear if Kyle was pinned by just the back rest or the back rest and the seat together but either way he was trapped upside down against the rear hatch the seat was exerting 69 lbs of pressure on his chest Kyle knew that he was in trouble unable to use his phone in his pocket he used the Siri function to call 911 at 3:14 p.m. an operator named Stephanie answered the call Kyle said quot help I am stuck in the van help help help I am stuck in the van outside 7 Seven Hills parking lot help I need help help help help can you hear me I'm at the Seven Hills parking lot I am trapped in my van help help I can't hear you I'm in desperate need of help help help help I can't hear you help I'm going to die soon help help unquote throughout the call a banging sound can be heard and Kyle screamed twice 3 minutes into the call it disconnected this was at 3:17 p.m. Stephanie called Kyle's phone back but was sent to his voicemail based on Kyle's cell phone GPS coordinates Stephanie identified Kyle's location as 5471 Redbank Road this location was only 12 parking spaces away from where Kyle's minivan was parked at 322 p.m. Stephanie labeled the call unknown trouble and dispatched the police to the 7 Hill school parking lot telling them that a female Was Heard stating that she was stuck inside her van Stephanie incorrectly believed that Kyle was female the call was classified as code 2 which is a high priority call the Officers knew or should have known that they were responding to a serious situation Stephanie believed it was possible the call came from the thrift store and relayed this information to the place as well again this thrift store was about 350 ft from the minivan two Cincinnati police officers arrived at 3:26 p.m. 12 minutes after Kyle called 911 the officers searched the south end of the thrift store parking lot and other parking lots on the opposite side of the street but they never looked in the north end of the parking lot where Kyle's minivan was parked the officers called Kyle's cell phone but just like Stephanie they received his voicemail there was an off duty police officer directing traffic on Redbank Road the two officers spoke to him but he said that he hadn't seen anything the two officers never exited their police vehicle in addition they were eating and playing music in their vehicle as they searched at 3:34 p.m. Kyle called 911 for a second time this time an operator named Amber handled the call Kyle said quote help me in a lot at Seven Hill School help me I can't hear what you were saying just send quickly gold Odyssey van I probably don't have much time left so tell my mom that I love her if I die this is not a joke this is not a joke I'm trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the sophomore parking lot of Seven Hills Hillsdale send officers immediately I'm almost dead unquote Kyle asked the operator if she could hear him his breathing was strained and he kept saying Hey Siri he may have been trying to place another call using his phone even though Kyle had talked quite a bit Amber activated the TTY function as if she had received a silent call this is a system that allows hearing impaired callers to communicate with an operator Amber should not have activated this function because Kyle was talking the TTY function reduced the volume of Kyle's voice by about 75% the call disconnected after just under 3 minutes at 3:37 p.m. Amber called Kyle's phone back but the call went to voicemail Amber was able to see the first call which had been handled by Stephanie but for some reason she never informed the two officers about the second call or notified her Superior at the same time as the call disconnected 3:37 p.m. the two officers Departed the scene declaring that they didn't find anything Kyle wasn't going to receive any help at all despite having called 911 twice and indicating that his life was in Jeopardy not long after the police left Kyle plush died from mechanical asphixiation during that evening his parents used an app to locate his cell phone and realized he was still at the school Kyle's father traveled to the school and discovered Kyle's body at 8:56 p.m. but of course it was too late the city conducted an investigation and concluded that the 911 operators and the police officers involved in this case had not engaged in any wrongdoing no discipline was imposed Kyle's parents filed the lawsuit in August 2019 in April 2021 the case was settled for $6 million now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one how did Kyle end up in this lethal situation in the first place I think this was a one in a billion tragedy a combination of unlikely circumstances came together and led to a horrible outcome Kyle had opened the driver side sliding door of the minivan to gain entry instead of using the rear hatch to get his shoes he was sitting on the third row seat that happened to be unlatched again maybe the spare tire was interfering with that seat latching when he reached back to get a shoe the seat flipped back and trapped him Kyle weighed about 117 lb and had some physical limitations investigators believe that his arms may have been trapped at his sides and he was not strong enough to free them and push himself up he was wedged between the rear hatch and the third row bench seat in such a way that he just could not Escape Kyle was amazingly resourceful he managed to call 911 one two times and accurately convey the seriousness of a situation unfortunately the people that he reached were incompetent this brings me to item number two the emergency response system failed at three different levels the operator Stephanie who handled the first call the two police officers and the operator Amber who handled the second call let's take a closer look at the ways they failed Kyle Stephanie never mentioned to the police officers how Kyle said he was going to die or that he was screaming for help she did not tell the officers that the caller's name was Kyle and she labeled the call unknown trouble Stephanie should have labeled the call request for rescue it is very likely that if firefighters had been dispatched they would have found Kyle right away based on their history of properly using the mapping functions in their vehicles the two police officers who were sent to find Kyle did not used the mapping functions in their vehicles and they did not access their cell phone mapping tools if they had searched for the Red Bank Road address that Stephanie provided they would have found Kyle they never actually went to that address the officers were eating and playing music as they were searching for Kyle and they never left their vehicle it was almost like they simply did not want to find the callar they knew the collar was trapped in a van yet it never occurred to them to turn the music off or to of their vehicle the officers knew or should have known that they were on a high priority call yet they didn't search the entire parking lot at one point when they were driving on Red Bank Road the minivan was clearly visible in the parking lot just 65 ft away in addition the officers turned off their body cameras before leaving the scene this was a violation of policy the 911 operator for the second call Amber did not notify the the police officers on the scene despite knowing about the first call inexplicably she activated the TTY system which made no sense based on the fact that Kyle was talking furthermore she never switched back to normal mode even after realizing that the caller was not hearing impaired Amber never bothered to replay the call to hear the details that she missed from having the volume reduced item number three the city concluded that there was no wrongdoing in this case many people disagree some people believe that the 911 operators and the police officers were negligent others believe they were reckless in my opinion all four people engaged in conduct that they knew or should have known would likely cause injury therefore they were Reckless there was absolutely no reason Kyle plush had to die that day he did everything right in an effort to save his own life and everyone failed him now moving to my final thoughts some people wonder if there was anything that Kyle could have done to prevent his death or was he simply doomed from the beginning as far as what Kyle had control over was this tragedy preventable the only thing that comes to mind as far as prevention would be avoiding a minivan seat that is not latched in place but how could Kyle have been expected to recognize that danger I doubt there was any 16-year-old on the planet at that time who would have hesitated to sit on an unlatched minivan seat teenagers are taught to avoid things like drugs and strangers but unlatched minivan seats are not even on the list as far as I know there had never been another death like this in the history of minivans I don't believe there has been one since Kyle's death either as far as contacting 911 as I mentioned Kyle did everything right he made efficient and highquality attempts to get assistance that should should have been successful most emergency workers are competent professionals who would have gladly made every effort to save Kyle's life if they had been in a position to help him unfortunately Kyle ended up with the worst combination of emergency workers imaginable everything conspired against Kyle on the day he died both before and after he called for people to save his life those are my thoughts in the case of Kyle plush please put any opinions in thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 97,231

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Id: kZeRMR70gRQ

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023