joansghost

HB 958 (Author: Rep. Dennis Bonnen) was filed on 01/30/2009 in the

Texas House of Representatives that proposes to enhance Aggravated

Assault offenses against "emergency services personnel" from a Second

Degree Felony (2-20yrs TDC) to a First Degree Felony (5-99yrs TDC).

The current Aggravated Assault offense regarding enhancement only

includes peace officers and "agents of the government", and DOES NOT

specifically include EMTs, Paramedics, and/or Firefighters. Rep.

Bonnen has proposed to include "emergency services personnel" so that

all emergency workers will be included.

Love it!! I never knew Nancy Pelosi was so um "talented" lol

Input from a former Texas District Atty and NREMT-P and taken from another public site:

"I have debated whether or not to weigh in on this discussion since I'm now a

permanent resident of Arizona, not Texas. However, it might be useful for

you in Texas to know Arizona's experience with field blood draws for DUI (here

it's called Driving Under the Influence rather than Driving While Intoxicated

(DWI).

Legally, anybody can draw blood in Arizona. However, typically, EMS

services and EMS certificants have not been involved in DUI blood draws. Usually,

suspects are transported to a hospital for the blood to be drawn. However,

for a number of years certain counties have trained police officers to draw

blood for DUI investigations.

Although they have a big van that's outfitted as a phlebotomy lab, and they

use it during their "DUI sweeps where they block the road and stop every car,"

most blood draws are done in the back seat of a squad car or with the arrestee

leaning against the car.

Which has led the DUI attorneys to develop special tactics and weapons to use

against blood draws. Among them: Attacking the sanitation of the blood

draw site. Wouldn't it be great to have a bunch of lawyer's investigators

going over our ambulances pursuant to subpoena, doing swabs and looking for

microbes? That is sure to happen if we get involved. The blood drawers will be

subjected to cross examination on every aspect of their actions, in court.

The cops go through a 5 day course in phlebotomy and a minimum of 100 blood

draws here. Can you imagine the questions that might be asked of an EMT-I

about training, number of draws, and so forth? Can you imagine the subpoenas

for training records, patient records, and such? Imagine it.

Unless the defendant agrees to the blood evidence being admitted in evidence

(fat chance of that ever happening) the person who drew will have to be called

to testify. She/he will be asked every question the lawyer can think of

about the training, experience, procedures, and so forth. Every step in the

procedure will be gone over in an attempt to prove contamination. The chain of

custody will be attacked.

When one is called to testify in a criminal case, generally speaking the

subpoena requires the witness to be present at the start of the trial. Some

experts who are VERY important get the courtesy of being called an hour prior to

the time they will testify, but for other witnesses, that just doesn't happen.

You can expect to be sitting in the hall all day for one or two days for

each case. Who will pay for that? Not the state. Witness fees are generally

$10 or $15 dollars. If the state calls you, you don't get anything. Who

pays for your time? What if it's overtime? What if your appearance causes

another employee on overtime to have to cover your shift?

Suffice it to say that if EMS folks in Texas are required to draw the blood,

the defense attorneys will apply the same arguments and techniques to them as

they have to police officers who draw blood.

Next, what happens when you get sued? There is currently a case in the

courts in Tucson filed by a man who claims that he got an MRSA infection in his

arm as the result of a sheriff's deputy drawing his blood in the field. He

claims disability, medical expenses, and asks for lost wages, medical expenses,

future medical expenses, future wages, and $500,000.00 in punitive damages.

What if it takes multiple sticks for the EMT to get the blood? What if

she/he sticks himself and gets hepatitis or HIV because the defendant becomes

uncooperative? What happens if the stick goes badly and there's an arterial

stick, et cetera? This is an invitation to lawsuits.

Who will pay for the defense of such cases? I do not believe that

malpractice policies as currently written will cover these cases, since they do not

involve medical care. Therefore, the medic individually and/or the service will

have to pay for the defense of such cases. This can be huge. If there's a

judgment against you, who will pay that? Your insurance won't.

We have also discussed the disruption it will cause to EMS if cops can call

us out to draw blood, or worse yet, order us to draw blood when it would

interfere with patient care. The law seeks to prevent this, but when emotions are

high such as at the scene of a horrible MVC, the law doesn't always get

carried out to the letter.

Last, we should not become involved in moral and emotional issues as

healthcare providers. Our job is to render prehospital medical care to patients, not

to become law enforcement surrogates. Once we cross that line, we will lose

our perspective, our independence, and our neutrality.

I have no objections whatsoever to a law that PERMITS EMS certificants to do

the blood draws voluntarily. If one wants to sign on as an employee or

contractee of law enforcement to do this, he should have that right. But it

should be outside the EMS system. Just as we each have our own notions about

unpopular patients, we nevertheless treat them equally well (I hope) and put our

personal feelings aside. We are starting down a slippery slope if we use

emotional and moral issues as a reason to begin doing a procedure that's best left

to others.

This is an emotional issue for some, and I recognize that. I have been in

law enforcement as a District Attorney and prosecuted many DWI cases. They

need to be prosecuted. But the methods do not need to involve EMS. There are

other and better ways to do it than tying up EMS personnel and causing them

the extra burden of cost and expenses that this will inevitably bring.

People mention "the CSI" factor in criminal cases. There is no doubt that

it exists. But, when one looks carefully at the law, the limits set are only

"prima facie" evidence of intoxication and can be overcome by testimony. In

fact, one does not even have to be over the limit to be charged with DWI or

driving under the influence of drugs. One of the best tools is the video tape

of the defendant's actions. It requires no expert testimony. It allows the

jury to see the same thing the officer saw and come to the same conclusion.

Videotape evidence is not something that can cause reversal in a case easily.

Blood and breath evidence can and does.

All in all, I believe that law enforcement should be left to law enforcement

and medical care left to medical professionals. I recognize that others will

strongly disagree. I have attempted to state some of the events that we can

expect to happen if we allow EMS to become involved in DWI blood draws. I

am sure there are others as well.

Gene Gandy, JD, LP, NREMT-P"

I ate a vegetarian once or twice....

Save a cow...eat a Vegetarian. AK is a friend to the animals!!! LOL

I have a pic that says that in an album dedicated to Vegetarian satire on myspace.

"I'll have the cruelly-tortured-for-its-entire-life-kept-alive-with-drugs-slaughtered-inhumanely-processed-unsanitarily-and-cooked-at-very-high-temperatures-to-kill-the-salmonella Sandwich, please"

BTW...I am not a Vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a Vegetarian cuz I hate plants

One more reason why I'm glad I'm a Vegetarian.

how does this profession effect our families

I love it. As bad as it sounds, it works out well for us. Of course, that is not true for everyone. The worst is the holidays, but big deal....I am not five anymore and misbehave most of the year so Santa doesn't visit anyway.

Just got a memo that phenergan was removed from the squad trucks because of recent issues with tissue necrosis at the IV site.

Thoughts?

This may not be my place to interject my opinion, but I experienced this a couple of years ago and while this drug was a God send for my situation, I know what it feels like to have to have this drug injected straight into your tissue. TWO WORDS: IT SUCKS! It was not done by a medic but by an RN in a hospital who ignored me when I told her my arm felt like it was on fire. I was told "it's supposed to burn". Long story short, the vein where the IV was had blown and now I have a permanent purple spot on my arm that has never gone away. This spot also has no sensation either. I will stick to oral or other forms of Phenergan from now on.