Details of teenager's death still uncertain

Correction: Due to a reporting error, this story states that Atlas Fraley was hospitalized last year for dehydration. Atlas was not hospitalized, he was treated by EMS at home.

Several fail-safes were unable to prevent the death of a Chapel Hill High School student Tuesday.

Atlas Fraley, 17, had a physical completed two weeks before.

He complained of headaches and cramps during and after a Tuesday morning football scrimmage.

He called 911 at 1:45 p.m. and asked for intravenous fluids for what he thought was dehydration.

"My body is hurting all over," he said to the emergency dispatch.

Yet when his parents came home at approximately 6:30 p.m., they found Fraley dead on the floor.

What happened between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Aug. 12 is still unclear as emergency reports have not yet been made public by Orange County Emergency Management Services.

CHHS Football Coach Issac Marsh confirmed that Fraley still had cramps when the team returned to Chapel Hill at approximately 12:30 p.m. The team had played earlier that day in a scrimmage at Middle Creek High School.

When Fraley's parents came home Tuesday evening, they found their only child unresponsive and called 911 immediately.

Malinda Fraley, his mother, said the rising senior went to the hospital a year ago after passing out from dehydration.

"When he called 911, he said he needed an IV because that's what they did for him last time, and he knew it was the same thing," she said.

He also had asthma problems and had a prescription for an Albuterol inhaler.

His mother said she first found out that her son had called EMS that day from a reporter.

"We don't know yet if they came out here or what they did, but they should have called me," Malinda Fraley said Thursday.

Robert Smith, operations supervisor for Chatham County FirstHealth EMS, said Chatham County has a policy to notify guardians of emergencies involving minors.

A press release Thursday afternoon from Capt. Dinah Jeffries of Orange EMS said that the office expressed condolences to the Fraley family and that a full review of the incident was under way.

Orange EMS officials are declining to comment further until the review is completed.

Sharon Artis, case management supervisor at the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said in an e-mail that it would be a minimum of 90 days before it released a report.

"We do not have a cause of death on this case. This is still a pending report awaiting various test results," Artis said.

CHHS Principal Jacqueline Ellis said all student athletes must present a physical.

The July 31 physical did not cause Malinda Fraley to worry about her son's health.

"His physical said his asthma was getting better," she said.

Assistant City Editor Kristen Cresante contributed reporting.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.