Doctor Sues PD and Private EMS

[Dustdevil]

http://paramedictv.ems1.com/Clip.aspx?key=CFA3B9131C434978

Interesting story and video. Doctor has stroke at wheel, and pulls over. Cop pulls up and decides he's drunk and handcuffs him in the back of her patrol car for an hour. Private EMS shows up, but apparently never even assesses the guy and leaves. Now everyone is getting sued.

Sounds to me like it's all on the cop, unless the medics did make patient contact.

[medic_texas]

Big oops. I feel bad for the doctor - can't practice, disabled, lack of income, etc. The family should win this case easily.

[JPINFV]

Girlfriend's gonna get paaaiiiddd

Edited April 7, 2010 by JPINFV

[funkytomtom]

That's awful. Shows you the need to do a proper assessment on all your patients. It could be that one time you half-ass it you get nailed. Although it is unclear whether he was even seen by EMS or not.

[akflightmedic]

If everything is en'shallah, then why the outrage? Just sayin...

[Dustdevil]

If everything is en'shallah, then why the outrage? Just sayin...

Or, as Billy Joel says, we didn't start the fire.

[DwayneEMTP]

...Sounds to me like it's all on the cop, unless the medics did make patient contact.

I'm thinking that if they were dispatched to the car, which I'm led to believe based on the statement that fire may also be brought in, then they belong in the suit, right? They had a duty to act on the pts behalf at that point I believe. Either way, I'm not being turned around by PD without an assessment, or supervisor involvement anyway.

Why would PD stay on the side of the road for an hour? Not criticizing as I don't know if this would be normal for the area or not.

If fire and/or the EMS crew allowed the cop to deliver their assessment to them then I hope they all leave court without their balls/ovaries, respectively.

Dwayne

[spenac]

If cops don't allow you to get to the patient have officer sign refusal. Then document the heck out of it.

[stcommodore]

Lets not forget police have the right to "recall" us, and if they say were not needed we often difer to them.

[zzyzx]

We discussed this story on the forum about a year ago. I used to work in Kern County. Don't remember all the details, but basically a medic showed up and the cop told him, "He's just drunk. He's going with us." The medic made patient contact but apparently also thought he was just drunk. He didn't do a proper assessment. One story I heard was that the medic claimed he could not do a proper neuro assessment because the patient was handcuffed. I'm not sure if this is really what he claimed or if that was the case then why he didn't just get the cop to uncuff him. Again, this is just what I heard and I'm not in on all the facts of the case.

The medic took off, and sometime later a nurse from the hospital came by because she recognized the doctor. She realized he was having a stroke and had PD call for another ambulance.

The lawyers will still have to prove that the delay in medical care would have made any difference in this guy's outcome. That doesn't seem very likely if he had a bleed, which is what I heard he had. Regardless, it's really tragic that this highly skilled doctor has become disabled. If I remember correctly, he was specialized surgeon of some kind.