Paramedic sentenced after patient death

[Rin]

http://www.therecord.com/pages/mobi...in-precedent-setting-case-after-patient-died/

LEOs injure a man and provide no first aid, firefighters on scene provide no treatment, a paramedic assesses and calls for an ambulance but provides no treatment. The ambulance crew arrives to find the man in full arrest.

Police who caused the life-ending injury are found not responsible, while the paramedic loses everything. No mention of fallout for the firefighters involved. There is so much wrong with this incident, but by no means is the paramedic solely responsible.

 

[gonefishing]

http://www.therecord.com/pages/mobi...in-precedent-setting-case-after-patient-died/

LEOs injure a man and provide no first aid, firefighters on scene provide no treatment, a paramedic assesses and calls for an ambulance but provides no treatment. The ambulance crew arrives to find the man in full arrest.

Police who caused the life-ending injury are found not responsible, while the paramedic loses everything. No mention of fallout for the firefighters involved. There is so much wrong with this incident, but by no means is the paramedic solely responsible.

No not fireman!, they are the real heros and can never do wrong! Lol

 

[OnceAnEMT]

...and must obtain proper certification for any other health-care profession.

No kidding, eh? I really wish news articles were peer reviewed at least a little bit.

I am confused as to why this man was expected to do anything in the first place. It sounds like he rolled up with no gear. Especially if that is the case, this really should be a company level issue, not a legal one. Curious if any of the Fire or LEOs had at least CPR/AED, if not EMT-B or higher.

If face value is true, it almost sounds like he just needed a better lawyer.

 

[chaz90]

No kidding, eh? I really wish news articles were peer reviewed at least a little bit.

I am confused as to why this man was expected to do anything in the first place. It sounds like he rolled up with no gear. Especially if that is the case, this really should be a company level issue, not a legal one. Curious if any of the Fire or LEOs had at least CPR/AED, if not EMT-B or higher.

If face value is true, it almost sounds like he just needed a better lawyer.

I'm quite certain he had equipment. He arrived in an "EMS vehicle" and had equipment available to check vitals. I imagine he was a solo medic in a first responding/intercept vehicle as this occurred in Canada. It doesn't really change the implications of being criminally charged in this case, but at least gives more perspective to what his role should have been.

To play devil's advocate, any paramedic arriving on scene of a call (gear or not) should be capable of determining whether the patient is in cardiac arrest and repositioning a compromised airway if necessary. I know nothing about this case beyond the brief news article here, but a propped up unconscious patient evaluated by a first responding medic and later determined to be in cardiac arrest by the responding crew on the ambulance does lead to some serious questions. His lawyer's excuse that he may have been thrown off by a chaotic scene doesn't hold any water for me either.

 

[Gurby]

When you find an unresponsive patient, the first thing you should do is check a pulse. Never mind that fire/PD/family/friends/bystanders are telling you that he's drunk, or that he just had a seizure, or that he does this all the time... Check for a pulse anyways, and look for breathing while you're at it. It's easy to forget this when you show up at a scene and everyone is giving you reasons why the pt is unresponsive. They're usually right, but clearly sometimes they aren't...

 

[Joey DeMartino]

Chaz90 makes a good point but I have a little different take on the scene as a whole. To me this is clearly an LEO scene control error. What is drilled into every new EMTs' head? Scene safety- scene size-up. He (the medic)was entering what he felt to be a volatile and unsecured situation. Obviously the pt. had an altercation where LEOs' responded with force. This-according to how I read his summarized statement in the posted account- is a game changer. Fire was leaving? And they were there for??? This incident was being governed by the PD. This is industry standard based on basic ICS protocols. Why was fire released w/o pt. stabilization being their first priority? Possibly because of the instability of the scene. I see no other reason given in this account. LEO seems to have allowed/caused the scene instability and pt. injury and fire exacerbated the problem by not properly transitioning from a fire to an ems mode by failing to render simple care and transferring patient care to the next arriving- more advanced ems provider. It is important to know just how long prior to the medics arrival the pt. was unresponsive and just how much time elapsed before care was actually rendered. I have been in many similar situations- as many others have as well- it's just too easy to make EMS (especially private companies) the fall guy when other agencies fail to administer the service they are paid to provide. Otherwise, will someone give me one logical reason that a trained paramedic would have refused to treat this individual?