# Unbelievable!!! EMT accused of sexually assaulting patient



## smileyyemtb76 (Aug 18, 2006)

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/081806/loc_assault001.shtml


We are entrusted with people's lives and well being on a daily basis. Its what we do.  What in the world was he thinking?? Absolutely sick...


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## ffemt8978 (Aug 18, 2006)

I agree that this is absolutely inexcusable and he needs some time in a prison.

However, did any one else see this comment by the trooper investigating the incident?



> Tucky said the girl did not have to be monitored, and no attendant was needed in the back of the ambulance.



Since when is no attendant needed in the back of an ambulance when there is a patient there?


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## smileyyemtb76 (Aug 18, 2006)

I forgot to mention that.  They're making it sound as if that was completely abnormal that he was back there... Apparently we are all missing something here...But I thought that would be considered neglect... Call me crazy but...


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## MedicPrincess (Aug 18, 2006)

No attendent needed, eh?  Then I guess her parents could have just drove her themselves.

Is is really so unusual for the lights to be off?  We often turn off the lights in the back if we are on a BLS transfer of a stable patient and the patient is resting.  We will keep only the EMT light up by the captains chair on to work on our report and it gives off enough light to see the patient as well.


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## Flight-LP (Aug 18, 2006)

Figures it would be a psych transfer. I agree, her parents should be responsible for her, but alas, it is an interfacility transfer that just absolutely requires a cabulance. The EMT should have known better than to set himself up for an issue with an underage psychotic female.............


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## ffemt8978 (Aug 18, 2006)

Flight-LP said:
			
		

> Figures it would be a psych transfer. I agree, her parents should be responsible for her, but alas, it is an interfacility transfer that just absolutely requires a cabulance. The EMT should have known better than to set himself up for an issue with an underage psychotic female.............


"Pysch transfer"???

Did I miss something, because I didn't see that in the article.

And if she is/was a pysch patient, there's no way I'm leaving her alone in the back of my ambulance with all types of things that can be used against herself or me.


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## gradygirl (Aug 18, 2006)

Me neither. The only thing remotely linked to a psych anything was the statement that she will need major counseling after the incident. I wonder why; that's just sick.


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## MariaCatEMT (Aug 19, 2006)

*Wow, just wow....makes me angry and sad.*


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## lfsvr0114 (Aug 19, 2006)

We had a similar situation happen at one of the services here.  The medic in the back made advances witnessed by the driver, who was checking the rear view mirror.  Since it was a female pt. and the crew was all male, he was checking every now and then to make sure everything was ok.  He yelled at the medic and he stopped, they got the pt to the facility and after a lot of red tape, were able to leave.  The medic driving back, stopped on the side of the road and put the offending medic out of the truck and made him walk several miles back to the station.  The offending medic was sued by the pt. and Texas decertified him.


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## MMiz (Aug 19, 2006)

This happened around the area where I used to live, and we regularly transported 14 year old girls to the psych hospital.

She *was* being transported to a psych hospital, one of the few remaining in the area.  I usually don't turn the lights on in the back of the ambulance if the trip is during the daytime, but *you can bet* they'll be on at night.  

I've transported far too many 14 year old psych patients to this facility at 2:00 am, and I'm extra cautious when I'm teching in back.  The patient sits in the airway/captains chair, and I sit back on the bench seat, both of us with our seatbelts on.  I grab my BP in the back of the ambulance while my partner is standing at the back doors with them wide open.  From then on patient contact is minimal.  I don't even want to present an opportunity for something to be construed as sexual.

What this EMT did was wrong, you just don't do that any patient.  There is no way to rationalize it, it just shouldn't happen.


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## smileyyemtb76 (Aug 19, 2006)

I agree with mmiz.  Those lights are always on at night. No matter what. And as ashamed as I am to admit this, I know the guy who did this. He was in my medic class this year. This is too close to home for me..absolutely sick..


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## Jon (Aug 20, 2006)

I've done female psych transfers berfore too... either I was a non-driver or an all-male crew... so I was in the back. Age dosen't matter. It isn't acceptable behivior to use our power over our patients like that... EVER.

The lights being off should have been a warning sign to the driver.

Also - in this area, "voluntary" psych transfers are usually classified as a paratransit run. As long as the patient isn't a skell they ride up front in the passenger seat with a seatbelt on, and I sit in the captians chair with my belt on. We are all wittnesses then.


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## MMiz (Aug 20, 2006)

Jon said:
			
		

> I've done female psych transfers berfore too... either I was a non-driver or an all-male crew... so I was in the back. Age dosen't matter. It isn't acceptable behivior to use our power over our patients like that... EVER.
> 
> The lights being off should have been a warning sign to the driver.
> 
> Also - in this area, "voluntary" psych transfers are usually classified as a paratransit run. As long as the patient isn't a skell they ride up front in the passenger seat with a seatbelt on, and I sit in the captians chair with my belt on. We are all wittnesses then.


My company has a policy that a patient must be in the back, even during an MCI, and an EMT must be in back with them.

We had one MCI with three patients sitting on the bench seat, one in the CPR chair, one in the captain's/airway chair, and me standing by the side door hanging on.  Yeeaaaah.


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## Jon (Aug 20, 2006)

MMiz said:
			
		

> My company has a policy that a patient must be in the back, even during an MCI, and an EMT must be in back with them.
> 
> We had one MCI with three patients sitting on the bench seat, one in the CPR chair, one in the captain's/airway chair, and me standing by the side door hanging on. Yeeaaaah.


Right...

This is something we often did on the overnights, when we were the only availible crew... The company didn't have an overnight paratranist driver, so we did runs on "paratransit" paperwork by ambulance.

I would NEVER have a BLS patient up front.


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## MMiz (Aug 20, 2006)

Jon,

Gotcha, I misread that one.


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## MariaCatEMT (Aug 23, 2006)

*Update: Paramedic fired, jailed*



			
				smileyyemtb76 said:
			
		

> http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/081806/loc_assault001.shtml
> 
> 
> We are entrusted with people's lives and well being on a daily basis. Its what we do.  What in the world was he thinking?? Absolutely sick...



*
Paramedic fired, jailed

A suburban-Detroit ambulance worker, accused of molesting a patient, now faces several charges. Matt De-Fillippo is charged with four counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Read more here...




*


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## JDFEMS (Aug 23, 2006)

I remember that incident here in TX. We do pedi and pedi pysch transports, and I would NEVER turn lights off, maybe down, shut off the flouresent (spelling??) and leave one side of the domes on low..... we mostly have type 2's, and it's kinda  a tight squeeze, not much light needed anyhow.


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## Jon (Aug 23, 2006)

Yeah... when I worked nightshift transports... I AT LEAST had the action-area light on, if not the "low" lights. The high lights were not needed unless my patient was actually sick (unusual).


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## MMiz (Aug 23, 2006)

During a bright sunny day I find that most of my patients actually rather have the lights off.  I believe it has a soothing effect, and makes the ambulance feel less sterile.

During night transports the lights are always on, no questions asked.  Unless I'm working a trauma or medical, lights generally stay on low.  I do remember several psych transfers I did, with young girls in the back, that I turned the lights on bright, sat a ways back on the bench, and talked loudly so my partner could hear everything.  

It's just part of doing the job.


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## Tincanfireman (Aug 25, 2006)

I hope that others (like me) who don't do a lot of psych transfers will learn from these stories. This is great information, and another example of how we help ourselves become better caregivers through these forums.


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## Tincanfireman (Aug 31, 2006)

Follow up to the above:

Later in the evening that I wrote the ^^^^ post, I had a call to transfer a female (prison guard!) who had passed out x 6 minutes at home. We had to take her across town to the CT because the one in the hospital was 10-7.  Even though I had a female partner and the pt had a raging migraine, those compartment lights stayed on low.  I hated it for her, but there was no way those lights were going off! h34r:


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