Paramedics overlooked me, truckie says

enjoynz

Lady Enjoynz
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I found this news article this morning and thought I'd post it.
There were 12 people recorded as being injuried at this MVC.
According to the early news reports, 3 ambulances attended it, but there may have been more.
I'm not sure if the truck driver was listed as one of those patients, from this news report, it looks like he wasn't.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4501352/Paramedics-overlooked-me-truckie-says

Here are some other news links to this MVC...it a miracle no-one was killed that day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10696929


http://www.3news.co.nz/Hawkes-Bay-1...le-up/tabid/423/articleID/192555/Default.aspx

I guess with the amount of serious patients and the fact that the truck driver (as a walking wounded) didn't come forward to be checked, you could forgive the crews that attended this incident.
What would you have done, given the same scenario?
There were 3 cars and a truck involved...would you have gone to check for all the drivers involved, if you were incharge of this incident?
Enjoynz
 

C.T.E.M.R.

Forum Lieutenant
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Triage is the first word that comes to mind, critical patients get taken care of first, i.e. treated and transported, If the truck driver felt like he needed to be checked out he should have approached emergency personnel. Honestly my first priority is the critically injured. I have a feeling the guys looking for a settlement.
 

Shishkabob

Forum Chief
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Add on the fact that the crash happened Monday their time, and he didn't go see his doctor till atleast Wednesday their time, obviously he didn't feel much need to seek emergency personnel in the first place, so his complaint holds no merit.


Oh noes, "civilian shock", whiplash and bruising. Yes, he most definitely needed to take a Paramedic away from someone who ended up being hospitalized for his needs...
 

Veneficus

Forum Chief
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for every 1 mishap there are 10 close calls

That is what an industrial safety specialist once presented to a EMS safety council I was on regarding EMS provider injuries.

I have found that to also be true in other aspects of EMS.

This guy (truckie is a word reserved for certain types of firemen ;) ) didn't appear to have any life threatening conditions that I could tell from the article.

If he was laying in a ditch somebody from the various emergency services probably would have noticed and no doubt treated appropriately.

Is there blame to be assigned? I don't think so.

But it was definately a close call that should be reviewed and steps taken to prevent it in the future.

It is not an outrageous "what if."

I am sure many of us have seen patients who "didn't look that bad" that were. To pick one example, once I transported a trauma patient that an airmed crew undertriaged who ended up being the worst injury of 5. Because she walked to a house to call 911. (in all fairness, she was compensating rather well, and the scene was very dark.) She was very with it mentally, didn't complain of anything at all, felt she should go to the hospital because she was in the same car that 2 people were flown out of, and 2 more taken by ground with significant injuries.

She was boarded and collared, on oxygengen and a monitor, SPo2 was good, and really didn't have any signs, symptoms, or numbers suggesting shock. So as I sat on the bench making polite conversation during the 55 minute transport filing out my report she asked me if her breasts were ok about 20 minutes into. Which I thought was an unsual question and she explained she had implants and hoped they hadn't ruptured. They hadn't but that is when I asked her if she was pregnant, because she seemed to have sort of a roundness to her abd. Well, as it turned out, it was an abd bleed, rigid, distending before my eyes, and probably started before she was even loaded into my rig by the FD and my partner while I was talking to the incident commander about who was hurt and to be transported where.

Some years before this call I even studied about people being mistriaged in Oklahoma City, and met the author of a mass casualty text who advocated everyone always transported because in his research he found that the stardard "looks good, looks bad" was inaccurate as was the A&O assessment. But at the time I was the last unit to arrive and it never crossed my mind there might have been any oversights prior to my arrival, or that any potentially developing injuries hadn't been accounted for.

So I think it probably would be a good idea in the future to perhaps work with LE to find out who the drivers were and who the passengers were and proactively seek them out for evaluation rather than relying on them to come to EMS. It seems waiting for patients to seek help will someday result in a major miss like a head injury, pneumo, or aortic dissection. (all which can develop over minutes, hours, or even days, but are usually not apparent on arrival of EMS to the scene or even first or second assessments.

Like I said, I don't fault the EMS providers, but I think they should all realize that this time they were lucky and never to trust to luck in the future.
 

ShannahQuilts

Forum Crew Member
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There are so many pieces left out of the situation, between the 3 stories, it's hard to tell.

Bystanders were treating some folks with their first aid kits. Do we know who those bystanders were? Off duty medical personnel, maybe? It might be that the guy who is complaining was actually seen by a medical person, just not one of the medics who were treating the mortally wounded.

If his wife had been one of the mortally wounded, would he really have wanted one of the medics to treat him, not her?

I agree that it seems a bit odd. I'm guessing that due to triage, the medics took the worst wounded. Not being able to observe the truck driver myself, but knowing he was walking around on the scene, and then took himself to the doctor, it really just doesn't seem like he needed attention on the scene.

Yeah, I could be wrong, and had he been the only injury, I would have treated him. I just think it's pretty likely that others needed the medics worse.
 

exodus

Forum Deputy Chief
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Am I the only one thinking 3 cars and a truck isn't a huge accident, but a fairly common occurance here in So-Cal?
 

Shishkabob

Forum Chief
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Am I the only one thinking 3 cars and a truck isn't a huge accident, but a fairly common occurance here in So-Cal?

New Years Eve, 3 car accident: 9 patients.

Amount of cars doesn't matter, amount of patients and severity does.
 
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