Responding during civil unrest

[Badgers]

Ive heard a number of stories about fire fighter being hassled while responding to calls during the recent unrest... Everything from rocks thrown to having windows busted out on vehicles...

Havent heard anything about EMS...

Does basic scene safety dictate not even entering these areas?
Do you respond and assess the situation then?

Surprised me with the attacks on police and fire, nothing on ems.

 

[NPO]

There have been numerous attacks on EMS. If you haven't seen them, look harder.

It's hard to declare a scene unsafe when the scene is the city. Many EMS agencies are equipped with ballistic protection equipment for the most severe areas.

 

[DrParasite]

took me less than 15 seconds to find these:

Video: Cleveland EMS supervisor's vehicle attacked during riot

Cleveland's EMS union condemned the attack on the vehicle trying to reach a patient

www.ems1.com

Denver ambulances attacked during riots

Denver Health said its EMS providers are wearing ballistic vests and helmets as a precaution

www.ems1.com

Man in custody after crashing stolen ambulance in Austin

The man jumped into the ambulance about 2:30 p.m. in the 5100 block of West Washington Boulevard while Chicago Fire Department paramedics were loading a patient into the back, Chicago police said.

chicago.suntimes.com

I'll let you look for the rest.

keep in mind, many attacks on EMS personnel don't make the news, so unless the agency shares it on social media, it won't make the news.

 

[FiremanMike]

My recommendations:

1. Wear your vest on ALL runs
2. Keep your head on a swivel, don't task saturate
3. When practical, consider doing the bulk of your patient assessment in the truck
4. Try to determine if a run is a transport or not sooner, and if it's a transport, get moving.

 

[hometownmedic5]

My day to day currently is manning a desk in an office in a small town where nothing ever happens, so this strictly speaking is a hypothetical, but here's my answer.

From the threshold, "Do you want to go to the hospital"? If yes, extricate by most expedient appropriate means. I can hear about your car accident in the 70's thats causes you recurrent pain in the truck. If no, or they are in extremis, you're committed for a minute. Get to the point where you can be mobile as expediently as is safely possible, and then leave. The number of calls you go on that need, actually really need, emergent bedside care is going to pale in comparison to the number of calls where you stand there like a ding dong while somebody tells you their life story in chronological order.

Things aren't great right now. I'm safe, or at least as safe as I'm going to get at home. Next, I'm most safe at the fire house. Everywhere else, I'm vulnerable both to threats I can see and address, and to those I cannot. My goal is to be in unsecure space for as little time possible. I'm willing to come to work and do my job during all of this, but we're doing it on my terms these days, and rule number one is we're not fiddle effing around out in the world. Go out, do the call, get back.

 

[RocketMedic]

For me, scene safety is comprehensive, and has a strong basis in how we are perceived. With all of the strife that we’re seeing from the police, I think it’s important to differentiate ourselves from them. They’re allies and friends, but we also don’t need to bear-hug their reputations and make enemies for that association.