Medic dumps patient off gurney on purpose

Sorry, but I don't care what the his reasoning was.... there is absolutely no reason to EVER flip the patient off the stretcher. You can make excuses all you want, but in the end, the paramedic deserves to lose his job, and deserves to lose his career.

Not sure if he should be in jail, but I wouldn't object to him having a criminal record after this. After all, his actions were criminal.

I don't care how much of an *** the patient is (and I have dealt with more than my share) the medics actions are completely uncalled for.

The other question is, how often do events like this occur, only nothing ever happens, because they aren't captured on video?
 
Oh, didn't realize that this one was one of those forums..

I'm out.

Angel said:
Probably about as much as police killing unarmed civilians and saying it was self defense -.-
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mgr22 said:
So...say you've got this patient on your stretcher. What would be an example of how the patient might be trying to cause you or your partner harm that would cause you to dump him off the stretcher?
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Pulls a knife or a gun. Just because they're on the stretcher doesn't magically make them cooperative and unable to cause harm to those around them.

The ideal situation is to leave as quickly as possible but if it comes down to it and something needs to be done I wouldn't lose sleep over it. As someone else said sometimes escape involves disruption/distraction as well. Running away from every situation isn't always the answer. By no means am I advocating staying and fighting with someone but in some situations actions like what this medic did can provide you and your partner/co-responders the valuable few extra seconds to allow you to actually escape rather than be injured or killed a few steps closer to the door than you were originally. The OODA loop!

As I said before the actions in this video are absolutely unacceptable. Was this medic probably burnt out and at the end of his rope? More than likely. Was this patient being an ***? Maybe, maybe not however judging by the actions of the medic I'm pretty confident that he probably was. Does it justify the medics actions at all? Not one bit. We need more accountability in EMS. I don't want anyone trying to say I'm condoning the actions of this guy.

I'm with FiremanMike though, I'm not gonna hang around a thread where anti-police crap is going to start coming up when it has absolutely no relation to the topic at hand.
 
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I don't think it was anti-cop.

Most of us are pro police- we know the way it goes out there.

However, you can't deny that such issues have been top news. We can't ignore it. Ferguson= hype. South Carolina = murder (caught on tape).

We serve and live amongst many different people. I'm not for or against any of them. I am for equal justice.

I believe her comment lacked a bit more descriptive verbiage, and it was not intended to be an all encompassing anti-cop post.
 
In other words:

Calm down.


No one has yet to justify this guy tossing the gurney... (No matter what kind of garbage is on it)
 
It should go without saying (though sadly, it obviously does not) that no one condones violence against patients. We should be able to discuss this without having to make that disclaimer constantly.

A fair amount of discussion goes on on this forum about mental health in EMS - we frequently acknowledge the manifestations of high levels of chronic stress and its negative affects on our well being, which as we all know can include lack of self-discipline and impulsive decision-making. With that in mind, it seems a bit contradictory to me that we show limitless compassion and understanding for those whose mental health imbalance results in self-harm, but nothing but vitriol for those whose imbalance results in decision-making that harms others. Are these not potentially just different symptoms of the same disease? Can someone who makes a mistake not deserve both discipline and compassion at the same time?

My take on Angel's post about the cops was the double standard where police routinely use excessive force and are still highly respected in public safety circles, yet when someone in EMS snaps and makes a bad decision - even if only once - we all want to burn him at the stake and worry about how it makes EMS look. Another glaring contradiction, if you ask me.


P.S. It isn't "anti-cop" to recognize and call out police abuse any more than it is "anti-paramedic" to recognize and call out paramedics who abuse.
 
Remi and chewy said it a lot better, and less hostile than I would've.
 
joshrunkle35 said:
You think this is what angel is saying, and it is what you are saying.

This is the part that I strongly disagree with.
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Well that isn't the point of this thread, so I'm not going to argue it here. But if you don't think that's the case you are ignoring many, many, many examples.

And again, acknowledging a problem is not "bashing" anything or anyone.
 
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I agree that in many cases agressive behavior by EMS workers can be tied to the stresses of the job and should be treated with sympathy regardless of the need for corrective action , termination etc.

I also feel that some EMS workers think they are cops or vigilantes and that people must listen to them or face abuse (verbal or physical) for their lack of compliance. Obviously no one is perfect and like most I have lost my temper. However, I think we all need to combat the belief that driving an ambulance around gives you the right to act unprofessionally (swearing, openly making crude sexist/racist/homophobic jokes, calling pt's liars, physical violence etc).
 
If any patient gives me lip they get a versed benadryl cocktail so I don't have to hear their complaining. Shaken, not stirred.

In my eyes police have the hardest job. We give them so much latitude to protect us and themselves from increasingly violent criminals. Yet any mistake they make and they're crucified. At this rate we won't have any police around cause no one will want to be one.

I blame the media. In late 2000s excessive force incidents were around 1.5% of arrests. I want to see if this rate has increased or stayed constant. I'm sure it's stayed the same but couldn't find it after ten seconds of googling and sleep is too enticing.

We need to protect our police force. It's what they do for us. If they make a mistake, hold them accountable; be it termination or criminal charges, but get the media out of the picture. The media no longer reports, they put their own judgement on things and the public is too stupid to think for themselves. STOP!

No more pointless riots.
 
Don't flip people off of your gurney... ever.

(There you go Angel.)
 
Uclabruin103 said:
I blame the media. In late 2000s excessive force incidents were around 1.5% of arrests. I want to see if this rate has increased or stayed constant.
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Where did that 1.5% come from?

Do you not think the vast majority of these incidents go unreported, or do get reported but never go anywhere?
 
This is the part where we stay on topic.
 
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