When a Hammond High School varsity basketball player collapsed a year ago during practice from cardiac arrest, a defibrillator was stationed just outside of the school’s gym.

Yet none of the Columbia school’s administration or coaching staff retrieved the medical device or provided immediate medical care such as CPR to the junior, his mother, Janet Kena, claims in a lawsuit filed Jan. 17 against the Howard County Public School System in federal court.

The suit states the school system’s actions violated federal law and left the teen, identified in the suit by his initials, A.A., in a persistent vegetative state. He is quadriplegic, unable to speak and unable to eat without a feeding tube, the suit states. It was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Kena, represented by attorney Solomon Radner, is seeking damages from the school system and multiple unnamed defendants involved in the incident, which took place on Jan. 18, 2024, and was captured on the school’s security cameras.

The suit claims the school system’s training and supervision policies fell “woefully short” and that the teen was harmed as a result. If the litigation concludes in the mother’s favor, a court could order the school system to pay attorney fees, damages or settlement costs.

“We seek to hold the school officials accountable, bring some semblance of justice to our clients, and ensure that schools everywhere take steps to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” Radner said in an statement.

The Howard County school system and Board of Education declined to comment on the allegations since the complaint has not yet been served or reviewed, said J. Stephen Cowles, the system’s general counsel, in an email Thursday.

Cowles said he expects that the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, an insurance carrier for the school system, will assign legal counsel to represent defendants in the case.

Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating. This happened to a Buffalo Bills player, Damar Hamlin, after a hit during a Monday Night Football game in January 2023. Emergency medical personnel swiftly restarted his heart with CPR and a defibrillator, which was credited with saving his life. He ultimately returned as a player.

The complaint states that on the day of the teen’s collapse, he lay unresponsive on the gym floor for about 15 minutes before receiving emergency medical interventions. Someone at the high school called 911 about an unresponsive male before paramedics arrived and began performing CPR and other emergency medical efforts.

It’s unclear how long the teen lay on the floor before 911 was called, Radner said. He suspects the student-athlete was waiting for help for at least a half-hour.

“He will suffer for the rest of his life as a direct result,” Radner said.

The school system has not provided security footage inside the gym, he said.

Hammond’s athletic director, who was not present at the school during the incident, called the teen’s father and older sister around 5:30 p.m. and told them the teen had fallen and was on his way to an area hospital. Medical staff stabilized and transferred him around 7 p.m. to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, where he remained until March 12. He then was transferred to Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital and remained in the adolescent rehabilitation unit until Nov. 18.

Before the teen’s cardiac arrest, he participated in basketball and track and was planning to apply to Michigan State University to major in computer science. The incident left him unable to care for himself, the suit states.

Kena lost her job at a local retirement community after exhausting her unpaid leave time in order to provide her son with round-the-clock care. She was also forced to move to a new home since the teen became quadriplegic and could no longer access their fourth-floor apartment.

The mother is asking the court for relief in the form of unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct J. Stephen Cowles’ name.