Special needs boy dies on Detroit school bus; family wants answers

DETROIT (WJBK) - A special needs student dies on a school bus and his family is demanding answers. 
    
That young man's family tells FOX 2 the last time he had a seizure was just a few days before he died. His teachers and others in the district knew about his condition - so they have a lot of questions about what happened. 

Artesian Boykins says there are so many unanswered questions surrounding the death of her 20-year-old nephew Carl Johnson. He died Tuesday after having a seizure on a school bus.

"We don't know what happened," said Artesian Boykins, his aunt. "We don't know if he had gotten help or if anybody tried to help."

At the time he was headed to the Jerry L. White Center - a school for students with special needs. It was the first day of a summer program.

"I was supposed to come cut his hair that Tuesday when I got off work," Boykins said. "I had a new pair of shoes and a shirt I was going to get to him but before I know it, they called me and I had to go to the hospital and see him lying there in the bed lifeless."

Carl lived with his aunt and grandmother Carole Boykins, who says although there was an aide on the school bus, it was school nurse who performed CPR on Carl once the bus arrived at the Jerry L. White Center.

An ambulance showed up soon after.

"Nobody on the bus knew how to do CPR to revive him, to bring him back," said Carole Boykins. "When his brain went dead, he lost oxygen for a whole hour. That was one of the first things the doctor told me: 'He will never be right. He won't be able to do nothing if he pulls through this.'"

He would not. Carl's aunt and grandmother say a special medical bus with trained nurses on board would normally pick him up for school-- but that did not happen Tuesday. Instead, it was the standard Trinity transportation bus.

The Detroit Public School Community District says there's nothing in Carl's records requiring special transportation and that it continues to mourn for Carl's family.

"We have to live from here on out not seeing him, not hearing him, not cooking for him," said Artesian.

DPSCD says anytime the district loses a student either in our out of their care it takes a huge toll on everyone. There is no word if the aide on the bus rendered aid or was trained to provide CPR.

There was a camera on that bus and Carl's family said they will be able to watch the video on Monday.