ToePick

Along with the above mentioned care, I would also be interested in the patients psych history and would def transport to a hospital with psych facilities (if available)

This case should bring a lot of issues to light that should be a priority in every county in the US, unfortunately a settlement will be made and this will all be forgotten like the many that never make press. What level of care should be available in rural areas and who should pay for it. Someone may choose to live way out in the middle of no where. Should they be expected to live without reasonably rapid and advanced care? And what about people traveling on an interstate or other public road. Should they expect the same level of care and expertise they would get if they were traveling in say, NYC, or Austin, Texas or some other major city? And when something bad happens who is ultimately responsible. There is just too many unknowns in this entire case to be judgmental. All the author uses is quotes from the legal allegations made by plaintiff, and of course they are going to sound as bad as possible. We shouldn't judge any of these departments unless we were there and had first hand knowledge of what took place. The pt states she was talking to her husband in the van. Were they stable when the helicopter was called? Who called for it? Who canceled it? Did the patients conditions change? Injuries were listed for her, but nothing was said as to the cause of death for her husband. Why? There are just way too many unknowns. What did the vehicles look like? Was there intrusions into the passenger compartment.. ect, ect... As far as liability is concerned (and it does look like there should be some here). I commend her for suing the highway departments. But what about local governments as well. How do we know that said Fire Dept or EMS did not at some point ask for better equipment and training and get turned down. Maybe more personnel or incentives for personnel. Any number of things that county and city governments cringe at when we ask for them. Again, its easy to say, "what a bunch of idiots", but maybe as the one person said they are doing the best they can. We just don't have enough of the facts. We all know that there are incompetent personnel, too big egos on scenes, and rivalries between different departments and Fire and EMS, and sometimes police as well. Communications break downs, different SOP's and/or protocols. Any number of issues exist that can cause problems on calls. But instead of jumping to conclusions and putting down these particular agencies based solely on this one reporters story (a bad one in my opinion). We should use this as an example to examine our own operating environments and see if any of these things could happen to us and what we can do to make sure that what supposedly happened doesn't happen where we work.

umm..whats wrong with sleeping in the rig? Not all of us have nice cushy stations to relax in...some of us eat, sleep, read, do homework ect.. my rig is like my second home on the days that I work I didn't see the vid.. but gosh.. common sense people..