I’ve noticed on various medical shows (I’ve never seen it in real life, but I would assume it would be at least somewhat similar) that when paramedics are called for a patient who’s had a heart attack, is in a car accident where there might be chest trauma, etc., they cut away the patient’s shirt so they can reach his chest. Note that I said “his” because it’s always a man–obviously they can’t show a woman with her shirt (and presumably her bra) cut away on broadcast TV. But that got me to thinking–what happens in real life? Do the doctors/paramedics/etc. do anything to ensure the woman’s privacy when things like this occur in public? Or for that matter a man’s, if they have to remove his pants/underwear to reach an injury?
Especially in this day of ubiquitous cell phone cameras, I would hate to think that getting in an accident would automatically mean that some bystander might have posted your half-naked image all over the internet before you even reach the hospital. Obviously the responders are going to do whatever they need to do to save the person’s life, but is there any consideration of privacy?
No. At least in every first aid class I’ve had, both civilian and military, privacy is very secondary. I’m sure if work on that section is no longer needed, privacy should be a concern, but at the same time, if it’s life or death (which it almost always is when clothes are cut off), no rational person is thinking about privacy…either the victim or the rescuer…they just want the victim to not die/become paralyzed/ brain damaged.
“You’re going to die if I don’t expose your breasts to do this life saving procedure.” “oh, I can’t be seen topless…let me die…” doesn’t happen much.
I have sometimes seen emergency responders (that are not needed for immediate emergency care) or helpful bystanders hold up blankets to block prying gazes, but it is my impression this is less to protect bodily modesty that to protect the dignity of the dead or dying.
I saw this at the Beijing Olympic Games, when an athlete injured him/herself. He/she wasn’t in danger of dying, but sometimes the injury wasn’t pretty to look at and I think they wanted to protect both the spectators’ having to look at the scene and the athlete’s modesty while the emergency personnel was working on him or her.
Way back when when I was taking CPR classes (I really ought to re-do those one of these times), the instructor made it very clear that you could best find the right spot with the shirt off, and that this was not in any way an erotic situation.
Not that it’s a more real-life situation than a TV show, but I’m reminded of the movie The Abyss. Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) drowns, and in the process of reviving her, the other characters pull open her shirt to use the shock paddles on her heart. I can’t remember if she didn’t have on a bra, or if they pulled it off, but they bared her chest for the procedure.
The Abyss always got extra points in my book because they did remove the bra. (The extra points are not because of the nudity but because that’s how it’s done.)
I took the AED and CPR training at work and have dreaded the day I need to use my training for this very reason. If I find a women passed out on the floor my first task is to rip open her blouse? I think I would be fired for even a slight misunderstanding there.
No, your first task is to determine whether she’s breathing and whether her heart is beating. If her heart is beating but she’s not breathing, then you start with the rescue breathing (AKA mouth-to-mouth) but not the chest compressions, and if she’s doing both, then you don’t do either (I don’t think it’s possible to be breathing without the heart beating).
Now that the question has been answered, I’ll say this drives me crazy. We can show surgery, and guts, and dead bodies all over TV but a pair of female nipples drives us around the fucking bend? What a messed up set of priorities.
With regards to the need for privacy of patients, I asked 5 of my female friends if they were embarassed during the birth process itself. To a woman, they all replied in the negative…they just wanted to get the child born. Note: these are all modest women, and I think is a good example of our ability to apply common sense to such medical situations. I am pretty sure that none of them wanted filming or national exposure during the birthing, but medical personnel and legitimate observers were not a problem.
As a personal note, I have been in the situation of a life threatening accident where my shirt, pants, and underwear were cut off. Didn’t care a bit, as help was my only priority.
I’ve never need anything cut off, but as a general rule whenever I have needed bits of my clothing removed for medical reasons I’m usually much more concerned with the medical part than the bare skin part. If it’s so dire they’re cutting me out of my garments I expect my feelings to be much the same. Assuming I’m conscious enough to be aware of what’s going on at all.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about modesty in front of medical or police personnel. Here’s a hypothetical: A female in her early 20s is struck by a car in a busy intersection. The paramedics respond and have to remove her clothing in order to treat her. Meanwhile, there are a good 30-50 bystanders in the area, many of them with cell phone cameras (hell, some of them might actually have real digital cameras with zoom lenses). Now, obviously most of them are going to be more concerned with the woman’s health than snapping a cheap shot, but let’s say we have a horny 18-year-old guy with no scruples and a digital camera. He snaps a couple of photos without being caught, and two hours later they’re on 4chan (or wherever people post illicit naked pictures, upskirt photos, and similar).
Is there any liability here, other than (obviously) the guy? I would think there wouldn’t be, but even so it seems like somebody who isn’t immediately responsible for trying to save the woman’s life might be expected to provide some privacy, even if it’s just shielding her with his body or holding up a blanket.
Obviously if the woman dies she’s not going to care–but after reading stories about photos of a decapitated teenage car accident victim popping up all over the web (and, most disturbingly, popping up in web searches on her name, which has the potential to give her family members mental trauma every time they search on her, since a new crop of these pictures turns up periodically even when the previous crop is smacked down), it seems like there ought to be some sort of policy. Of course, the worst part of this case is that I believe the photos initially came from one of the responders on scene’s cell phones–I don’t remember the details, but I think he either sent them to a friend or sent them to some other (uninvolved) medical personnel and they somehow got leaked. (BTW, lest you think this is an urban legend, I’ve actually seen the photo, and it’s pretty horrific.)
Take this as the exception that proves the rule if you like, but I seem to remember a mid-run episode of ER where a bad auto accident forced a helicopter evac from the suburbs where they had actually cleared the female victim’s chest of clothing. It was, of course, shot in such a way as to avoid getting NBC in trouble with the FCC, but it sticks in my mind because of its having been “done right.”
Sorry I can’t give an episode cite, but it would have been from the era right around the time Mark Greene died, which is pretty much when I stopped watching.