Stricken Chapel Hill football player called 911

He was seen, not hospitalized

CHAPEL HILL -- Atlas Fraley called 911 for help Tuesday afternoon, saying he hurt all over.

An EMS crew came to the Chapel Hill High School football player's house but did not take the 17-year-old to the hospital. It is unclear how or whether the crew treated him, but by the time his parents got home that evening, their son was dead.

Relatives want to know what happened, and the county's Emergency Services Department is investigating its response on a day that stretched resources to the breaking point.

Even as Fraley's parents were arriving home, EMS crews were being called to a two-vehicle crash with four people injured in western Orange County and to East Chapel Hill High School, where another football player lay writhing in agony waiting for an ambulance.

On Thursday, Capt. Dinah Jeffries of Orange County Emergency Services read a brief statement about the Fraley case but did not answer any questions.

"A full review of the facts is in process so that we and the family may have a clear picture of the circumstances surrounding this tragic and extraordinary event," she said. "Our focus is on getting information to the family."

And the family wants it.

"They came here, and I guess they told him to take Gatorade and just left him," said Fraley's aunt, Melissa Edwards, mother of NFL defensive back Dovonte Edwards. "Why he didn't get help, we don't know."

Fraley had played in a scrimmage against Middle Creek High School in Apex on Tuesday morning. During the game, he complained of a headache and coaches took him out until he felt better. The headache returned, and they took him out for good.

About 2 p.m., he called 911 complaining of "full body cramps."

"My body is hurting all over," he told the dispatcher. "I just came from football practice, and I think I need an IV or something. ... I think I'm just dehydrated and need an IV."

Dr. John Butts, chief state medical examiner, who completed an autopsy on Fraley's body, is waiting for test results. "Dehydration may have played a role in his death, but this is not certain, nor even that he was dehydrated," Butts said.

The death of the player came on a hectic day for the Emergency Services department.

Between 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Orange 911 received 11 calls for service. Officials would not say how busy crews were earlier that afternoon when Fraley called initially.

In the evening, one call came from East Chapel Hill High School, where a running back for Carrboro High School, DeMarcus Powell, had injured his knee during a scrimmage. Powell, 16, lay on the field at least 23 minutes before a paramedic arrived in a sport utility vehicle.

"He was biting my legs. He bit on his mouthpiece," said his mother, Patrice Powell.

It was another 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived.

Capt. Kim Woodward, operations manager for Orange County Emergency Services, said personnel could not respond more quickly because they were tied up on the other calls, including Fraley's death. Efforts to reach Woodward to discuss Fraley's call were unsuccessful.

Barry Jacobs, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said that he doesn't have any reason to think the medical response when Fraley first called wasn't adequate but that the incident raises questions that need to be answered.

"Any time a 17-year-old who's apparently OK dies after they've been seen by some kind of medical personnel ... you wonder if anything could have been done differently," Jacobs said.

"I think we owe that explanation to the family. And we owe it to people who call 911," he said. Jacobs said the county board had not yet been briefed by EMS directors.