N.J. Supreme Court Rules Couple Can Sue Rescue Squad

[News]

The couple, whose son was fatally shot, can sue responders they say took too long to get him to the hospital.

View the full article

[island emt]

What a load of crap: The court did the right thing in interpreting the laws of immunity.

However to sue the rescue squad because your teen son shot his older brother to death is utterly ridiculous.

If you want to sue someone, Go after your idiot son that pulled the trigger on what was more than likely an illegal handgun . Oh Wait. He's in Jail for manslaughter, living off the taxpayers!

Wake up folks : You were doing CPR on a dead man before the ambulance was dispatched.

Shot in the heart and dead on scene would not be transported here either, at all.

Hospitals do not want bodies brought to the ER.

Call the medical examiners office and detectives.

[ERDoc]

I got a really good chuckle out of the comments when I clicked on the full article. I specifically enjoyed the insight of Victor Morton, the very accomplished EMT, who, i

n his 12 years of being a EMT has answered over 5,000 Emergency calls between his time on his first aid squad and working as a paid EMT. The poster, thegoodfight, is almost a comedic with his/her belief that every CPR should be transported shit. Good stuff.

[island emt]

Yep : the comments were so far off the wall as to be laughable.

[ERDoc]

Maybe we should invite them over here to have a conversation with some of you so that they can see there is EMS outside of their little NJ EMS world.

[WolfmanHarris]

Are we all on about the same page here? For us traumatic arrest in asystole is pronounced. Any other rhythm will be transported if less than 30 mins from the hospital counting extrication time. Any significant variations on that?

[JakeEMTP]

Wait, they were doing compressions on a conscious patient? I re-read the article twice to see if I was indeed reading it correctly. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say he was pulseless and non-breathing when they arrived. Anyway, the lawsuit is bogus. They have the right to sue and probably will, but it should never see the inside of a courtroom.

The comments are hilarious. Really Victor Morton, full c-spine with c-collar and LSB? For a trauma code? Oh dear oh dear. One of the wackers Matt said "And in regards to the medication and treatment that ALS is going to do vs. the ER doc, last I checked, ALS won't be doing any type of exploratory treatment to try and stem the internal bleeding. ACLS is great, but it doesn't do much if there's no blood in the circulatory system". How is there going to be any internal bleeding if there is quote, "no blood in the circulatory system".

In his vast experience of 12 years and a whopping 5000 calls, poor Victor has been less than prudent in keeping up with the science. Total tool. The crew did muppet around on scene far to long, the pt.'s outcome however wouldn't have changed one bit by transporting him to the trauma centre, not the local hospital where the family wanted him to go.

[ERDoc]

Here in the US, where EMS is on the cutting edge of medicine, things work a little different. In some places, unless there is obvious death (decapitation, lividity, etc) EMS cannot pronounce.

EDIT: And just to nitpick (although it wouldn't change the outcome) there is more we can do in the ER than in the field. We can do thoracotomies and pericardiocentesis. I wonder if Mastermedic Morton has ever done one?

Edited July 19, 2012 by ERDoc

[Chief1C]

I would have prolly just called the coroner. Just sayin'

[eb1040]

I prefer to read the referenced court summary rather than a bunch of anonymous comments in a newspaper.

http://www.judiciary...RescueSquad.pdf

Whether or not it is all the truth it does give a basis to form an opinion based on evidence presented to the courts.

I do see a problem with 2 EMT-Basics working a code without calling for ALS or going to the hospital for over 30 minutes. Without an ECG, they would have no way of knowing the person was asystole. They also may not have known if they could not feel a pulse due to a pulseless rhythm or severe hypotension. I think the new AHA CPR guidelines have addressed.

I am also going to refrain from making a judgement against the person shot or who shot him. That is not my concern as long as the scene is safe for me to treat the patient.

Edited July 19, 2012 by eb1040