EMS workers suspended

[CityEMT212]

Hi all,

Thoughts? The mother stated she'd drive the daughter to the hospital herself, although I believe assessments should have taken place.

By EMS1 Staff

TAMPA, Fla. — Four paramedics were suspended after violating three areas of standard procedure during a 911 call for a woman who was showing symptoms of a stroke.

Tampa Bay Times reported that the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue paramedics responded to a call on July 4 about Crystle Galloway, who had recently given birth via cesarean section and was exhibiting signs of a stroke.

The paramedics helped carry the woman from her third-floor residence to her mother’s car, later telling officials that Sheriff’s deputies on the scene had told them Galloway’s mother, Nicole Benhamou, wanted to drive her daughter to the hospital herself.

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Moderator's note: Edited post to meet Fair Use guidelines.

 

[DrParasite]

I read this article too..... So many questions came to mind, as well as so many "I can't believer they actually did that"

1) I find it very hard to believe that two paramedic units responded, they carried the patient down the stairs from the 3rd floor and to the patient's car, and then documented the call as "no patient found."

2) I find it very hard to believe that they didn't even bother to assess the patient, when the Sheriff’s Office deputies were on scene previously.

3) there has to be more to this story. This is one of those "something just doesn't add up, I can't believe all 4 of these paramedics all did this" moments that I have trouble believing actually happened. After all, we are only hearing one side of the story.

From the tampa bay times:

Two paramedic units responded to the call, placed by Benhamou. Paramedics helped carry Galloway down from the third floor of her residence but did not examine her, Merrill said.

They later told county officials that Sheriff’s Office deputies who were already on the scene told them that Benhamou wanted to drive the woman to the hospital.

But they failed to get the mother or Galloway to sign an informed consent form as required. What’s more, in recording the call on their logging system, the paramedics indicated the patient could not be found.

Merrill called this a falsification of records.

If everything Merrill says is 100% accurate, than they deserve to be terminated, and having 4 experienced paramedics on two separate units all doing the same stupid thing demonstrates that this isn't an isolated issue.

But we haven't heard their side of the story.

 

[DrParasite]

found a follow up of this situation found here: http://www.nbc-2.com/story/39186012...-to-follow-protocol-resulting-in-death-of-mom

some highlights:

"And in fact, in some cases, outright arrogance that weighed heavily in my decision to terminate Lt. Morris, who said he would do the same thing over again, and that he doesn’t need to take vitals ‘he knows by looking at a patient.’ That’s unacceptable," Merrill said.

the union sees things a little differently:

"It’s all a failure of leadership by these people, you’ve got a lifelong bureaucrat in their talking about an Iraq War veteran. He’s (Merrill) covering his a**. A woman called 911 for honorable, heroic fire medics, including one Iraq War veteran who showed up there to help. They weren’t there, not to help. And, they offered to render aid and were declined. She left with her mom to the hospital. They did everything they could I can’t wrestle you to the ground and make you let me treat you?"

This really looks shady..... There is also many claims that are being made by the mother (Nicole Black) that seem to serve no purpose other than to get a bigger payout in a future lawsuit.

and from http://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/ne...firefighters-attend-pre-disciplinary-hearings

Merrill said all four admitted to the violations, even though union President Derrik Ryan said they would never deny care.

"The folks behind me and my four fire medics , we come to work to save lives — the accusations against my four members are crazy," Ryan said.

I said it before, and I will say it again: if all this happened as the 4 are accused, they all deserve to be terminated (especially Lt. Morris if he doesn't need vitals because he knows by looking at the patient). But something sounds really wrong, like there is an toxic cultural problem...... I can't believe all 4 paramedics did this, in the presence of other public safety officers and the family. something isn't adding up here..... I can't believe these 4 did this.

 

[DesertMedic66]

found a follow up of this situation found here: http://www.nbc-2.com/story/39186012...-to-follow-protocol-resulting-in-death-of-mom

some highlights:

the union sees things a little differently:

This really looks shady..... There is also many claims that are being made by the mother (Nicole Black) that seem to serve no purpose other than to get a bigger payout in a future lawsuit.

and from http://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/ne...firefighters-attend-pre-disciplinary-hearings I said it before, and I will say it again: if all this happened as the 4 are accused, they all deserve to be terminated (especially Lt. Morris if he doesn't need vitals because he knows by looking at the patient). But something sounds really wrong, like there is an toxic cultural problem...... I can't believe all 4 paramedics did this, in the presence of other public safety officers and the family. something isn't adding up here..... I can't believe these 4 did this.

After seeing how one of our local fire stations operates I can 100% believe this happened. Walking out of the house once they hear us arriving with a patient still having a seizure in the bad bedroom and being on scene for 30+ minutes for a code 2 general weakness call with only a BP being recorded when the patient is actually having a stroke. There are great stations and great fire medics but sometimes there is a station filled with fire medics who hate being medics and that is the station culture.

 

[johnrsemt]

Fire crew gave me vital signs when I arrived, I asked them to double check the BP for me; and they asked to use our BP cuff because they didn't bring their's in to the house; even though they gave me a BP when I arrived.
some crews are great, bad thing is it takes a while to learn who you can trust