Gail Delaughter/Houston Public Media
A banner in remembrance of Marshall Middle School student Landon Payton, who died Aug. 14, 2024, is displayed near the campus marquee in October 2024 in Houston.
More than 10 months after Landon Payton collapsed in a P.E. class and died, his family still does not have clarity about what exactly happened to the 14-year-old student from Marshall Middle School.
But a wrongful death lawsuit against Houston ISD remains a possibility, according to an attorney representing Payton’s family.
Chris Tritico told Houston Public Media this week that he’s enlisted a medical expert to study the autopsy report completed earlier this month by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, which could not definitively determine Payton’s cause of death.
“We don’t know what it is, at this point, that killed him,” Tritico said. “I was waiting for the medical examiner, and now I have to wait for my own expert. The medical examiner left me still with questions.”
A key question for Tritico is whether Payton’s life could have been saved by an automated external defibrillator, or AED, a device that is required to be kept at all public schools in Texas because it can treat sudden cardiac arrest. The president of the Houston Federation of Teachers said in the aftermath of Payton’s death that a school employee tried to use an AED on the student inside the gym, but it wasn’t working.
Houston ISD, which has said it expects to be sued by Payton’s family, acknowledged shortly after his death that 170 of the 1,000-plus AEDs at its campuses were not working at the time of his Aug. 14 death. Records obtained by Houston Public Media showed the AED in the Marshall Middle School gym had expired electrode pads during an inspection three months before Payton’s death, and it’s unclear whether those pads were replaced before he died.
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Tritico said he hasn’t confirmed whether the AED in the gym was working on the day Payton died, adding that he’s also considering legal action against the manufacturer of the device.
“When you have a presumably healthy kid that drops, just dies, the failure of an AED – if it’s operating properly or at all – is generally a big factor,” Tritico said.
According to the autopsy report, which was obtained by Houston Public Media, Payton had “no significant past medical history” and was “reported to have seizure-like activity prior to collapsing at school.” No abnormalities of the brain or heart were found.
Payton was found to have chronic kidney damage, but it was “not significant enough to be considered causal in the death,” according to the report. He also was found to have genetic predispositions to malignant hyperthermia, which can cause a rapidly increasing heart rate, and epileptic encephalopathies, which can lead to seizures. The medical examiner noted that those genetic variations could have been contributing factors.
“At this time his death remains unexplained, however possibilities include natural causes (such as sudden death associated with an unidentified underlying genetic abnormality) and accidental causes (such as drug toxicity related to a currently undetected drug),” the report states.
Tritico invoked the case of NFL player Damar Hamlin, who during a nationally televised game in 2023 collapsed on the field and was resuscitated with the use of an AED. The attorney said Hamlin “has the same genetic issue that this young man had.”
“And he’s playing again today,” Tritico said of Hamlin. “And so, if it was the genetic disorder that killed him, the AED that saved that football player’s life has him back on the field today.”
The lack of clarity about Payton’s death – more than 10 months later – has made the loss especially difficult for his family, Tritico said. They continue to seek solace and closure and must continue waiting.
“They’re grappling for answers,” Tritico said. “They’re just crushed over this and reeling still.”