Something confuses me here. Doesn’t it have to be an doctor to actually declare a person dead? EMT’s “declaring” a person dead sounds like a legal, not to mention an ethical, no-no. Sounds like more than the EMTs need to be investigated.
I am so sad to hear that he died. His family has to start grieving all over again. What torture.
I found a story online (Jan 27) that said he was improving. Damn. This sucks.
I think you’re right on that, although I don’t think they have to treat someone they think is dead as if he’s alive. They just can’t do the formal pronouncement.
When my FIL died, the nurse said he was gone and all, but the legal pronunciation didn’t come til the main hospice lady showed up.
In Virginia at least, EMS providers need a physician’s permission to pronounce a patient, but the physician does not need to actually need to see the patient. I have pronounced many patients with a physician’s blessing (after I am certain the patient is good and dead).
In fact, if we can contact the patient’s primary physician and get them to agree to sign the death certificate we can send the patient directly to the funeral home–they are never seen by a physician.
But this time, they cut off his head to be sure he *stays * dead.
They’d better bury in salt at least 300 yards away from the rest of him.
You know, to be real sure.
First off, here is the latest news. Two medics have been fired by Franklin County and had their licenses suspended by the state.
Next,
In most cases, a doctor does declare someone dead. It’s done through online Medical Control, where a medic (or EMT) consults with the doctor over the phone. Also, it happens all the time. I’ve done it before. In some cases resuscitation is likely to be futile (asystole with unknown downtime, etc), why should we give the family false hope and unnecessary bills by transporting the patient to the hospital when we know they’ll just be pronounced dead in the ER?
In regards to additional training, in my opinion, they didn’t do it right the first time. From the sounds of it, he definitely should have had an EKG done and potentially some other treatments before being pronounced.
For the curious, here’s the relevant parts of the Denver Metro Paramedic Protocol for field pronouncements:
So, had this been my call, we would definitely have done an EKG, opened the airway, and contacted a physician. Knowing our medical control docs, we probably would have decompressed the chest as well before getting a pronouncement.
St. Urho
Paramedic
I wanna know too!
They’ll have to nuke him from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
:smack:
You are right.
I forgot about random drunk teens with nothing better to do than running around in their undies, stirring up trouble and reassembling corpses.
The “dead man” is, indeed, still alive, though unconscious and paralyzed:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6954586/
His neighbor believes “The Almighty” has something to do with it.
And, of course, Channel 5’s story was in error.
Gee, you think maybe I could con a Mod. into moving this over into GD as evidence of resurrection? :dubious: