Florida Firefighters To Pay $200K For Dropping Patient

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MMiz

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Firefighters To Pay $200K For Dropping Patient

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Orange County firefighters will have to pay a $200,000 legal settlement for dropping a patient. In 2006, Orange County firefighters tried to carry a man out of his second floor apartment in a wooden chair, and the chair broke.

The man broke his back in that fall and says he broke his hip, shoulders and had spinal fractures.

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That is a lot of injuries for a 3 foot fall.

Note, this is just an observation, not trying to make a smart arse remark.
 
FERNO-Stair-Chair-System-LSS-_i_LBM90167Z.jpg


Good colour too :D
 
1) that is quite a bit of broken bones from a 3 foot fall, esp for a 52 year old.

2) if he was no longer seizing, and he was awake and talking, then he should have walked down the stairs.

3) carrying him down in a wooden chair is pretty stupid; that's what the stair chair was designed for

4) another reasons it's safer to ambulate a stable patient down the stairs

5) 200,000 for spinal fractures, both shoulders and a hip? sounds like the FD got off lucky.

6) walk the patient under his own power, this way you don't have to worry about the chair breaking. and if for some reason he can't walk, then use a chair that is designed for carrying people down the stairs. and if they can't sit in a chair, carry then in a reeves, backboard, or as a last resort, a stokes basket. not really rocket science here.
 
Brown, Brown, Brown.... Come into the 21st Century.

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Might as well use a kitchen chair if you're going to go with the old-style stair chairs. :D
 
Something was seriously wrong, or this guy must have hired a really good ambulance chasing lawyer...
I will say, though, in some areas (MA), we aren't allowed to walk patients, especially on stairs...
 
DrParasite said:
1)
4) another reasons it's safer to ambulate a stable patient down the stairs
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didn't read the article, completely disagree with this statement.
 
emt.dan said:
Something was seriously wrong, or this guy must have hired a really good ambulance chasing lawyer...
I will say, though, in some areas (MA), we aren't allowed to walk patients, especially on stairs...
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This is one of the many stupid policies from MA OEMS. While, in general, it's much better to carry than walk, situations are way too dynamic to make a hard and fast rule, especially with how OEMS has it written where EMS providers aren't even supposed to "allow" the patient to walk to the gurney. Sorry, the gurney is just outside this door, but we've gotta carry you out because a few a-holes ruined it for everyone else.
 
8jimi8 said:
didn't read the article, completely disagree with this statement.
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How many pts have you carried?

Its not a one size fits all decision, but walking, if the pt can do it, will ALWAYS happen if I have a say in it.
 
BLSBoy said:
How many pts have you carried?

Its not a one size fits all decision, but walking, if the pt can do it, will ALWAYS happen if I have a say in it.
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Agreed.

If it wont exacerbate the injury or illness they walk.

Remember your ABC's

Ambulate Before Carry. :)
 
As someone who was raised by my single epileptic father in an apartment building, and had to call 911 for him a few times (bonking his head or lots of seizures in a short period of time) they never walked him out, he always got a magic chair ride, and I'm glad honestly. Not only can the postictal haze last for a while (this is especially easy to notice when you know someone very well and know their baseline very well).... my dad once took a swing at me 10 minutes after seizing, but seizing is extremely tiring and often left my dad a little weak.

I'm not saying the wood chair was the best idea, but I don't think ambulating someone who just had a seizure down a flight of stairs is the best idea either.
 
Aidey said:
Here is another article on the incident, but it contradicts the first one in almost every way, which is odd, because they are both credited to the same news organization. http://emsresponder.com/online/arti...t_comment=y&submit_comment=y&submit_comment=y

I'm sorry, but there is no way they got him 6 feet off the ground on a flat surface, it just doesn't make any sense.
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this article was from back in 2007. the OP's article was from about a week or so ago in 2010. the 2007 job looks like a lot of opinion from the victim and victim family, to play up a lot of the situation as being worse than it really is (or rather, the paint a more sympathetic picture).

oh, and the older article says the pt's was a diabetic whose BGL fell. once you wake them up, and they become AOx3, no reason they can't walk to the stretcher or ambulance (assuming you give them a sandwich, OJ, etc). we have many diabetics whose sugar drops on a weekly basis, and they routinely get woken up and then they RMA, with directions to follow up with their endocrinologist.

ambulate before you carry..... your back will thank you, especially if the patient's condition doesn't warrant them being carried.

as a side note, in my system, seizure patients who seize and are no longer seizing is a BLS dispatch. in fact, seizure patients often walk from the location to the ambulance, and/or from the ambulance into a wheel chair to the hospital. day in and day out
 
CAOX3 said:
If it wont exacerbate the injury or illness they walk.
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Here's the problem with that in this case. Can you guarantee, with in a reasonable doubt, that a postictal patient can reasonable ambulate safely? I'm all for the ambulate before carry, but I'm not quite sure that I'm going to pick a patient immediately post seizure to apply that to.


Additionally, in this case, if you're going to carry someone out in a chair, you need a pretty good reason not to switch to a stair chair.
 
DrParasite said:
ambulate before you carry..... your back will thank you, especially if the patient's condition doesn't warrant them being carried.
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Please explain the bolded. Would you actively try to ambulate a patient who's condition warrants being carried unless the situation dictated that the only feasible method is ambulation?
 
JPINFV said:
Here's the problem with that in this case. Can you guarantee, with in a reasonable doubt, that a postictal patient can reasonable ambulate safely? I'm all for the ambulate before carry, but I'm not quite sure that I'm going to pick a patient immediately post seizure to apply that to.


Additionally, in this case, if you're going to carry someone out in a chair, you need a pretty good reason not to switch to a stair chair.
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I was speaking in general terms, addressing "everyone needs to be carried."

No your right on, he isn't a candidate to walk in my opinion either, anything where exertion may exacerbate the condition they will be carried, by the fire department hopefully :) but usually it ends up being me. I consider walking a postictal or altered patient to be potentially dangerous unless there is a difficult extrication he goes in the stair chair.

We have those fancy stair chairs now with the tracks on them. So you never really have to lift anyone any more, they do suck going around corners and if you do have to lift them for a considerable amount of time they are F'n heavy.
 
EMSLaw said:
Brown, Brown, Brown.... Come into the 21st Century.

e7088_stryker_6252.jpg


Might as well use a kitchen chair if you're going to go with the old-style stair chairs. :D
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I used one of those on the barriatric ambulance the other day. They are basically the greatest things ever invented.

I'm asking the ambulance fairy for one for the normal trucks.
 
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