Paramedic impersonater avoids jail, gets probation

[LucidResq]

Fake paramedic avoids jail

DENVER - The man who pretended to be a paramedic for more than a year, treating an unknown number of patients, has been sentenced to probation.

Todd Teel, who now lives in Wyoming, will serve two years probation. He will also reimburse his former employer for part of his wages and Medicaid services that were billed to taxpayers.

Teel pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminal impersonation in Denver District Court. Judge Sheila Rappaport could have sentenced Teel to up to a year and a half in prison and up to $100,000 in fines.

Teel was never a paramedic, but he played one in real life for 17 months treating patients in American Medical Response ambulances.

It is really interesting to me that many of the people commenting on this story are defending him and saying he should be allowed to test for his paramedic and get his job back, only facing punishment in some type of community service or fine on the basis that he had EMT-P training back in 1991 (doesn't say if he completed it or not, but he never tested for cert. and even his EMT-B was expired).

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

AMR has great hiring standards!

 

[Sapphyre]

Hey, don't knock all the divisions just because that one messed up.

 

[reaper]

That is our justice system at work! Wonder how much time he would get for impersonating a Judge?

 

[Shishkabob]

AMR has great hiring standards!

Seeing as they hired me, they sure do!


Now, background checkers, that's another story. Hell, in the short time I've been here I've heard a handful of stories.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

Seeing as they hired me, they sure do!

Now, background checkers, that's another story. Hell, in the short time I've been here I've heard a handful of stories.

Hell, they hired me too! But I was smart enough to get out before they sucked the life out of me. Then again, it is probably the division, not the company in general. Who knows the chain of events that found this "Medic" working without a licence. Any comments about AMR can be atributed to my distain for those in EMS that are "Money, Money, Money... Give Us More Money and forget the EMT's, Paramedics, or Patients." IMHO.

Sad story though about this "Medic". Gives the profession a bad name and sets us back in the respect area, something that is lacking in general.

 

[Melclin]

Hell, they hired me too! But I was smart enough to get out before they sucked the life out of me. Then again, it is probably the division, not the company in general. Who knows the chain of events that found this "Medic" working without a licence. Any comments about AMR can be atributed to my distain for those in EMS that are "Money, Money, Money... Give Us More Money and forget the EMT's, Paramedics, or Patients." IMHO.

Sad story though about this "Medic". Gives the profession a bad name and sets us back in the respect area, something that is lacking in general.

To be honest (and I'm not having a go at anyone here), it turns my stomach that you guys over there have a hotch potch of privately run ambulance services.

Its funny that you say that respect is lacking. That is a totally foreign concept to me. Here (AUS) paramedics are regularly voted most respected and trusted profession. Everywhere you go (in uniform) people wave and smile and are generally taken in awe.

 

[amberdt03]

Seeing as they hired me, they sure do!


Now, background checkers, that's another story. Hell, in the short time I've been here I've heard a handful of stories.

once this story broke, all the cct medics, when they weren't on calls, were on the tdh website checking all of our certs, i'm sure other divisions were doing the same. lol.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

To be honest (and I'm not having a go at anyone here), it turns my stomach that you guys over there have a hotch potch of privately run ambulance services.

Its funny that you say that respect is lacking. That is a totally foreign concept to me. Here (AUS) paramedics are regularly voted most respected and trusted profession. Everywhere you go (in uniform) people wave and smile and are generally taken in awe.

Private Ambulance makes me sick too. It is a buisiness to them, when to me it was about the patients and the staff that should have ben busting there *** to help them. When I was with the company of whcih I spoke they had grossed soemthing in the realm of Billions that year and sold the company off for 4 times that amount. It was ridiculous, especially when you started doing the math on how much we charged. Hell, they made all newbies take a 20 hour course of proper billing! TRUE! Maybe this is why a lot of ambulance preofessionals aren't give much respect in my neck of the woods. We are viewed, not as rescue professionals, but as just another piece of a poorly constructed medical system. If I go back to Ambulance (in other EMT related areas now), it will be for a company that operates closer to home for me. They are a privately non profit crew that has to have teh county increase taxes slightly every so often just to stay running in this small rural county.

 

[daedalus]

To be honest (and I'm not having a go at anyone here), it turns my stomach that you guys over there have a hotch potch of privately run ambulance services.

Its funny that you say that respect is lacking. That is a totally foreign concept to me. Here (AUS) paramedics are regularly voted most respected and trusted profession. Everywhere you go (in uniform) people wave and smile and are generally taken in awe.

I'm moving to austraila! Sign me up! I have gotten yelled at by three members of the public thus far in my shift and it's only noon. A man just pounded on the ambulance window a few minutes ago demanding we do more than just sit around, with his tax money. I told him we are a private service and he has all of two seconds before I radio for the cops, so he flippe me off and walked away

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

I'm moving to austraila! Sign me up! I have gotten yelled at by three members of the public thus far in my shift and it's only noon. A man just pounded on the ambulance window a few minutes ago demanding we do more than just sit around, with his tax money. I told him we are a private service and he has all of two seconds before I radio for the cops, so he flippe me off and walked away

That's what you get for "just sitting around"!
Get ready for a call in a few minutes, though. Karma is a b*tch. That guy is probably gonna be Hit by a Car in 3...2...1...

Daamn he runs fast. I swerved, but missed...

 

[Shishkabob]

Its funny that you say that respect is lacking. That is a totally foreign concept to me. Here (AUS) paramedics are regularly voted most respected and trusted profession. Everywhere you go (in uniform) people wave and smile and are generally taken in awe.

Actually, if I'm wearing my uniform anywhere I go, people instantly associate me with some sort of emergency service, even if they don't understand what the patch means.

If we stop to get food/gas, not a time goes by that we don't get spoken to by random strangers.

sold the company off for 4 times that amount.

Why do you make this sound bad? You DO know that is the norm when selling a business, correct?

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

Why do you make this sound bad? You DO know that is the norm when selling a business, correct?

From a business standpoint it ain't bad. It's good old American Capitolism! But we are in business of helping people. That should come first. When any comany puts money before people, we have a problem, especially when that business is centered around patient care.