4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Where Did the Save-A-Life Money Go?

The Chicago Tribune of January 16, 1995, ran a story of a mother, Carol Spizzirri, lamenting the death in an auto accident of her 18-year-old daughter, Christina, in 1992. “This is my girl,” whispered Spizzirri at her daughter’s grave, said the newspaper. “I can still feel her hand. And I see her everywhere. Her hair at the grocery store. Her smile.”

In 1993, Spizzirri had gone on to found the Save-A-Life Foundation, for teaching first aid to students. She was greatly responsible for a 1995 law requiring Illinois police officers and firefighters to be trained in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. By this time, Spizzirri was a darling of politicians and bureaucrats, although it was a matter of record that she had been convicted twice for shoplifting. Save-A-Life began raking in money from government grants.

But few, if any, seemed to have noticed that less than a month after that 1995 Tribune story appeared, the newspaper had retracted key points. In the first story, the writer had said, “The first police officers on the scene balked at administering aid. By the time the paramedics arrived, Christina had bled to death on the highway.”

On February 7, 1995, the Tribune stated that Christina had “died in a hospital more than an hour after the accident,” not on the highway. The story had suggested that Christina died from bleeding from a severed arm. But the Tribune had to admit she had died of multiple traumatic injuries, including a depressed skull. The police officers who came to the scene had not “balked” at administering first aid, but they were not trained in the practice. “It is unlikely that basic first aid would have saved her,” said the embarrassed Tribune.

Sponsored
Sponsored

But it wasn’t until November of 2006 that ABC 7 News in Chicago, in the first of several broadcasts, exposed more of Spizzirri’s untruthful statements. She had told the station that she was a registered nurse. But the station reported that the institution from which she had claimed to receive her nursing degree had never given her one. A hospital in which she had claimed to be a transplant nurse said she had been a patient care assistant, which is akin to a candy striper. After the announcer challenged her on the assertion that the accident was a hit-and-run, she walked out of the interview. Her abrupt departure was shown on TV.

By this time, her foundation had raised about $8 million from such groups as the Illinois Department of Public Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control, and she had been paid more than $100,000 in some years. She had gathered support from such politicians as Democrat Dick Durbin, now a Senate kingpin, and Norm Coleman, then a Republican senator. Ronald McDonald had joined the fan club. Mike Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, embraced the movement and was shown in a picture with Spizzirri. (After Katrina hit, President George W. Bush uttered the famous remark, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” When it was apparent he wasn’t, he resigned.)

Arne Duncan, then the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, now United States Secretary of Education, had lauded what the foundation was doing for the schools and effused, “Carol [Spizzirri] is one of my heroes.” That praise had come two months before the series of ABC 7 shows began.

Soon, the support began falling off, and Spizzirri went in another direction: campaigning against cyberstalking. On June 29, 2009, the Save-A-Life Foundation closed down.

And Carol Spizzirri came to San Marcos. I have confirmed that she and a former treasurer of Save-A-Life are living at Palomar Estates West, a mobile home community in San Marcos. Four phone numbers said to be theirs led nowhere. I wrote emails to her last surviving daughter and her closest friend, asking that Spizzirri call me but have heard nothing. So Ernie Barrera, a Reader contributor, went there to ask her questions and take photos of the mobile home. Prior to going, he watched the Chicago TV tape so he knew what she looked and sounded like. He met a woman in front of the Spizzirri home. “I asked if she was Carol Spizzirri. She said no and refused to identify herself. I was sure it was she. The looks were the same, the voice the same as on the TV tape,” says Barrera.

In June of this year, the Illinois attorney general wrote to Spizzirri, noting that in its most recent yearly report, Save-A-Life had $152,112 in net assets. “Please provide information on who received the remaining assets of the foundation,” wrote the attorney general’s office, which also inquired about the use of sale proceeds of a foundation-owned building. I asked the attorney general’s office both by phone and email for a response and have received none.

I have gone through records of Lake County, Illinois, where Spizzirri lived. On May 18, 1992 — four months before the fatal accident — Christina filed for an order of protection against her mother. A neighbor who lives four houses away was willing to be Christina’s primary caretaker. The complaint stated that Spizzirri had struck Christina “on several occasions and threatened her on many occasions.” The order of protection, granted the same month, barred Spizzirri from seeing her daughter at several locations such as school and work. Christina “fears her mother will attempt to harass her or retaliate,” said the complaint. Spizzirri asserted, among other things, that she could use “reasonable force to discipline a child” who needed medical attention. In July, Spizzirri got Christina back — two months before she was killed.

Christina’s filing for protection may have been triggered by an incident on May 4, 1992, when, Lake County Circuit Court records show, Spizzirri complained that her daughter damaged a curio cabinet in the household and did physical damage to a second daughter. Christina was placed on $20,000 bail and charged with a misdemeanor.

Christina’s father, Gordon Pratt of Milwaukee, who divorced Spizzirri in 1981, says that Spizzirri had been out drinking that May evening with the other daughter and came home at 2:00 a.m. Christina, who was underage, had also been drinking and came home later. “There was a dispute and it escalated into a physical confrontation,” he says, relating a phone call he received from Christina. Soon, both Spizzirri and the other daughter were hitting Christina, who fought back, says Pratt. She shoved the curio cabinet in trying to get out the door.

In both the police report and the coroner’s inquest into Christina’s death, officers said that she had been partying and drinking before the accident. The hospital reported that her blood alcohol level was .176 percent. The legal limit is .100 percent in Illinois, so she was legally intoxicated — something Spizzirri didn’t talk about when touting her foundation. The police reports, the coroner’s inquest, and the inquest jury all emphasized that there was no hit-and-run — her death was the result of “a single-vehicle roll-over,” said the jury.

Spizzirri has taken to the courts — suing, for example, some who said her foundation had not taught as many people as she claimed. She dropped the suits. Shortly after her daughter’s death, she sued Lake County safety officials for mishandling the accident. Spizzirri “has been and will be in the future deprived of the society, companionship, love, affection and support of her daughter,” said her complaint, asking for $15,000. She dropped that too.

In mid-1995, she wrote a letter to the Lake County coroner’s office, claiming it had defamed her foundation by giving out false information about the accident when the Tribune had made inquiries to make its correction. She demanded a public apology. The coroner said there would be none, adding, “I do not support innuendo, lies, and threats.”

At the coroner’s inquest, Pratt stated that Christina was “a child who went through hell so that she could get to heaven.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Huge Shark drops debut, Mark Langford interprets poems, Alvino & the Dwells split EP, Flogging Molly declines retakes, Lil Maru raps downtown

“Maybe it’s time to say hello again”

The Chicago Tribune of January 16, 1995, ran a story of a mother, Carol Spizzirri, lamenting the death in an auto accident of her 18-year-old daughter, Christina, in 1992. “This is my girl,” whispered Spizzirri at her daughter’s grave, said the newspaper. “I can still feel her hand. And I see her everywhere. Her hair at the grocery store. Her smile.”

In 1993, Spizzirri had gone on to found the Save-A-Life Foundation, for teaching first aid to students. She was greatly responsible for a 1995 law requiring Illinois police officers and firefighters to be trained in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. By this time, Spizzirri was a darling of politicians and bureaucrats, although it was a matter of record that she had been convicted twice for shoplifting. Save-A-Life began raking in money from government grants.

But few, if any, seemed to have noticed that less than a month after that 1995 Tribune story appeared, the newspaper had retracted key points. In the first story, the writer had said, “The first police officers on the scene balked at administering aid. By the time the paramedics arrived, Christina had bled to death on the highway.”

On February 7, 1995, the Tribune stated that Christina had “died in a hospital more than an hour after the accident,” not on the highway. The story had suggested that Christina died from bleeding from a severed arm. But the Tribune had to admit she had died of multiple traumatic injuries, including a depressed skull. The police officers who came to the scene had not “balked” at administering first aid, but they were not trained in the practice. “It is unlikely that basic first aid would have saved her,” said the embarrassed Tribune.

Sponsored
Sponsored

But it wasn’t until November of 2006 that ABC 7 News in Chicago, in the first of several broadcasts, exposed more of Spizzirri’s untruthful statements. She had told the station that she was a registered nurse. But the station reported that the institution from which she had claimed to receive her nursing degree had never given her one. A hospital in which she had claimed to be a transplant nurse said she had been a patient care assistant, which is akin to a candy striper. After the announcer challenged her on the assertion that the accident was a hit-and-run, she walked out of the interview. Her abrupt departure was shown on TV.

By this time, her foundation had raised about $8 million from such groups as the Illinois Department of Public Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control, and she had been paid more than $100,000 in some years. She had gathered support from such politicians as Democrat Dick Durbin, now a Senate kingpin, and Norm Coleman, then a Republican senator. Ronald McDonald had joined the fan club. Mike Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, embraced the movement and was shown in a picture with Spizzirri. (After Katrina hit, President George W. Bush uttered the famous remark, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” When it was apparent he wasn’t, he resigned.)

Arne Duncan, then the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, now United States Secretary of Education, had lauded what the foundation was doing for the schools and effused, “Carol [Spizzirri] is one of my heroes.” That praise had come two months before the series of ABC 7 shows began.

Soon, the support began falling off, and Spizzirri went in another direction: campaigning against cyberstalking. On June 29, 2009, the Save-A-Life Foundation closed down.

And Carol Spizzirri came to San Marcos. I have confirmed that she and a former treasurer of Save-A-Life are living at Palomar Estates West, a mobile home community in San Marcos. Four phone numbers said to be theirs led nowhere. I wrote emails to her last surviving daughter and her closest friend, asking that Spizzirri call me but have heard nothing. So Ernie Barrera, a Reader contributor, went there to ask her questions and take photos of the mobile home. Prior to going, he watched the Chicago TV tape so he knew what she looked and sounded like. He met a woman in front of the Spizzirri home. “I asked if she was Carol Spizzirri. She said no and refused to identify herself. I was sure it was she. The looks were the same, the voice the same as on the TV tape,” says Barrera.

In June of this year, the Illinois attorney general wrote to Spizzirri, noting that in its most recent yearly report, Save-A-Life had $152,112 in net assets. “Please provide information on who received the remaining assets of the foundation,” wrote the attorney general’s office, which also inquired about the use of sale proceeds of a foundation-owned building. I asked the attorney general’s office both by phone and email for a response and have received none.

I have gone through records of Lake County, Illinois, where Spizzirri lived. On May 18, 1992 — four months before the fatal accident — Christina filed for an order of protection against her mother. A neighbor who lives four houses away was willing to be Christina’s primary caretaker. The complaint stated that Spizzirri had struck Christina “on several occasions and threatened her on many occasions.” The order of protection, granted the same month, barred Spizzirri from seeing her daughter at several locations such as school and work. Christina “fears her mother will attempt to harass her or retaliate,” said the complaint. Spizzirri asserted, among other things, that she could use “reasonable force to discipline a child” who needed medical attention. In July, Spizzirri got Christina back — two months before she was killed.

Christina’s filing for protection may have been triggered by an incident on May 4, 1992, when, Lake County Circuit Court records show, Spizzirri complained that her daughter damaged a curio cabinet in the household and did physical damage to a second daughter. Christina was placed on $20,000 bail and charged with a misdemeanor.

Christina’s father, Gordon Pratt of Milwaukee, who divorced Spizzirri in 1981, says that Spizzirri had been out drinking that May evening with the other daughter and came home at 2:00 a.m. Christina, who was underage, had also been drinking and came home later. “There was a dispute and it escalated into a physical confrontation,” he says, relating a phone call he received from Christina. Soon, both Spizzirri and the other daughter were hitting Christina, who fought back, says Pratt. She shoved the curio cabinet in trying to get out the door.

In both the police report and the coroner’s inquest into Christina’s death, officers said that she had been partying and drinking before the accident. The hospital reported that her blood alcohol level was .176 percent. The legal limit is .100 percent in Illinois, so she was legally intoxicated — something Spizzirri didn’t talk about when touting her foundation. The police reports, the coroner’s inquest, and the inquest jury all emphasized that there was no hit-and-run — her death was the result of “a single-vehicle roll-over,” said the jury.

Spizzirri has taken to the courts — suing, for example, some who said her foundation had not taught as many people as she claimed. She dropped the suits. Shortly after her daughter’s death, she sued Lake County safety officials for mishandling the accident. Spizzirri “has been and will be in the future deprived of the society, companionship, love, affection and support of her daughter,” said her complaint, asking for $15,000. She dropped that too.

In mid-1995, she wrote a letter to the Lake County coroner’s office, claiming it had defamed her foundation by giving out false information about the accident when the Tribune had made inquiries to make its correction. She demanded a public apology. The coroner said there would be none, adding, “I do not support innuendo, lies, and threats.”

At the coroner’s inquest, Pratt stated that Christina was “a child who went through hell so that she could get to heaven.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Reader food critic checks self with ChatGPT

A robot reviews Thai 55, Rocky's Crown Pub, Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria, Lola 55, The Friendly, Jack in the Box
Next Article

Lead Pony and Ten Bulls, SurfSkate Fest, Opening Weekend Block Party

Events March 30-April 1, 2023
Comments

In June of this year, the Illinois attorney general wrote to Spizzirri, noting that in its most recent yearly report, Save-A-Life had $152,112 in net assets. “Please provide information on who received the remaining assets of the foundation,” wrote the attorney general’s office, which also inquired about the use of sale proceeds of a foundation-owned building.

Pretty obvious the $$$ went into Spizzirri's pockets.

But what I want to know is how a child gets a personal protection order against their parents.

I have never heard of this, and I also question if it would be legally valid-since it appears to violate constitutional rights- such as bringing your children the way you want to-assuming there is no mental or physical harm involved (note-I am NOT claiming you may physically/mentally abuse, or even hit, a child).

If violence were involved against a child, the proper procedure would have been to contact child protective services, then Spizzirri would get due process rights, including a hearing to tell her side fo the story.

Nov. 17, 2010

The child was 18 when she died. So maybe that's why?

Nov. 17, 2010

Remember, this happened in Illinois, not California. Laws may be different. Also, neighbor signed the protection order and was willing to take Christina in. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 17, 2010

Yes, Christina died only a few months after she sought the protective order. She may have been 18. I could look it up because I went over the documents carefully, but frankly I don't have time. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 17, 2010

Yes, I saw and considered those documents in preparing this. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 17, 2010

I saw those documents and for various reasons did not use some of them. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 17, 2010

You've lost me, but the technologically smart ones on this blog may figure out what you are saying. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 17, 2010

My post (#6) have the links, just click on them.

Nov. 17, 2010

We removed that post for a very good reason. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 18, 2010

Oh wow, I did not even notice the links were removed.

I thought they were public records.

Nov. 18, 2010

Some are. But some are not. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 18, 2010

Ohhhh...sorry about posting up those links.

I would never want to invade anyones privacy.

Looking back, you are 100% correct, some of those things should not have been posted.

Nov. 19, 2010

My apologies to Carol Spizzirri.............

Nov. 19, 2010

Agreed. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 20, 2010

This sad story sounds like Spizzirri did what many of our elected Officials are doing, promoting themselves using someone else's problems, then fading away with a fat "Pension"...

Nov. 19, 2010

Founder, people today just do not have any morals or ethics, and there are no boundries to it-from elected officials, to lawyers, doctors, secretaries, janitors......it is just everywhere.

We need to fix this, by leadership. Sanders is not leading us.

Carl DeMaio is NOT taking his pension from this City even though he could. Why? Because he is trying to fix the problems with it and that means cutting benefits, and for him to have credibility he needed to repudiate his City pension. That is putting your money where your mouth is in my book. Why can't Sanders do that?

Nov. 19, 2010

I believe that "WE" should take every opportunity to address the City Council and remind all of them that we are ashamed of them for what they are doing!

If Carl is not taking a pension then Right On for him, as long as he does not pull a Sanders and take it when re-elected. As soon as I heard about that, I knew San Diego was going to be hosed by a Lame Duck; but I never thought Sanders would sellout the City with a Billion Dollar Guacamole Bowl $TADIUM Deal...

Nov. 19, 2010

If Carl is not taking a pension then Right On for him, as long as he does not pull a Sanders and take it when re-elected

Exactly, and it seems that they say one thing to get elected and then don't follow thru, like with Sanders and the Mayor pension.

The back room stadium deal killed whatever small amount of credibility Sanders had left. he is going down. He won't get anything else accomplished for the remainder fo his Mayor term.

Sanders is to San Diego what Arnold was to CA.-a failure.

Nov. 19, 2010

The secret backroom Chargers deal may have one positive result: the end of Sanders. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 20, 2010

City council will not do anything because it is made up of politicians. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 20, 2010

You actually thought Sanders would NOT sell out the City Oh, dear. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 20, 2010

Sanders is out for Sanders, not San Diego. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 20, 2010

I don't believe that a pension is involved. Maybe "pension." Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 20, 2010
  • For DeMaio might also make a great Bumper Sticker for DeMaio...
Nov. 25, 2010

Yes, it might be effective. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 25, 2010

Interesting that the public isn't aware how restraining orders against parents come about. Nor did anyone educate them they frequently requested and granted by the ex. It's the bedrock foundation to parental alienation. Also interesting how quickly it went to Sanders. Do most readers suffer from ADD or something? Why can't people stay on point?

Nov. 26, 2010

I assume you mean how quickly the responses to this drifted to Sanders. It happens all the time. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 27, 2010

Interesting that the public isn't aware how restraining orders against parents come about.

Children do NOT have the legal authority to get PPO/RO against their parents.

Sorry, but I don't buy that.

There would HAVE to be due process protections for the parent, and PPO/RO would violate those DP rights.

Like I said earlier-child protective services could bring an action, but not the child.

Nov. 26, 2010

When I get well (which may be awhile), I will check to see if Christina was 18. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 28, 2010

I was in the process of determining whether Christina had turned 18, but then got ill. I am still ill. There is also the view that the adult neighbor, who was willing to be her primary caretaker, eliminated that restriction. We also must consider that this would have been done under Illinois law. Best, Don Bauder

Nov. 27, 2010

Christina was a few months shy of 18 when she sought to get a protective order from her mother. Best, Don Bauder

Dec. 1, 2010

I wonder if the age of consent has any weight in whether to issue such an order? In many states the age is lower than 18-which is the age in CA.

Dec. 1, 2010

We don't have an answer to that. Anybody know Illinois law on the point? Best, Don Bauder

Dec. 1, 2010
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox [email protected] — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close