Woman left for dead by EMS, later found alive, dies of injuries

[Sapphire]

This is a really sad case, but at least they knew of her existence, unlike in this story, where the victim wasn't found until the car was taken to the towing company's yard:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317195,00.html

[Gerryatrics]

Triage is used on mass casualty incidents. As "First on scene medics" , usually 2 of them, they go through the injured rapidly to classify them in to 4 catagories. Green: "walking wounded" Yellow: can delay transport due to injuries are manageable for the time being, Red: critical, needing rapid transport and Black: dead or will be in just a matter of mins.

Triaged in the sense of separating and focusing treatment on the victims based on their conditions and the ability of the responders to to enact aid. It would make sense to concentrate treatment on those who would respond to it instead of someone beyond medical treatment. However, that doesn't quite explain why they covered the victim with a sheet when she wasn't yet deceased, why she wasn't transported when she wasn't asystolic, why nobody reevaluated her condition even though - as you pointed out - there were four paramedics and probably a few EMTs milling around; and finally, why it took her nearly 36 hours to suc b to her injuries after having medical care withheld for two hours when the paramedic's allegedly believed she was dead or would be dead within minutes.

Pronouncing onscene...
Paramedics can contact their online medical direction to pronounce a person onscene which contact info(Dr name, orders, TOD, etc) is do ented on pt report. In all cases that I have been onscene of a DOA. the online medical direction asked if a cardiac monitor confrimed asystloe in all the leads(wires).

Thank you.

Fixed it. Thanks, Gerry.

Whoops, sorry, didn't realize that was your story. Had I known I would have been a little more tactful in pointing out the contradiction.

She does so- and we end up waiting another 10 mins- so we ask our dispatcher again. After a few moments, she comes back and says, "they were waiting for you to clear the scene..."

Are they serious!!!! I had a call for a guy hit with a bat on the head twice- and I asked for EMS 3 times and had to wait 15 mins for them. After I asked for EMS the 3rd time my dispatcher tells me- "They were waiting for you to clear the scene.." Oh my god! I asked you for 3 times- what do you think!

We'll stage for law enforcement i.e. park down the street and around the corner. Once the dispatcher says the scene is secure it should only take a minute or so to actually reach the scene, not 10 or 15. Sounds like there's either a breakdown in communication between the dispatcher and EMS or they aren't actually leaving the station until they get the all clear signal.

[ShoogarBear]

What you guys think of this quote?


"I don't foresee any discipline for (the paramedics)," Hood said, adding, "There's nothing to apologize for. We weren't driving the vehicle that hit the car."

What I think is that Mr. Hood is going to get various forms of reaming out over the next few days. If his intention was to deflect attention from the paramedics, he's probably temporarily succeeded.

[to21]

What you guys think of this quote?


"I don't foresee any discipline for (the paramedics)," Hood said, adding, "There's nothing to apologize for. We weren't driving the vehicle that hit the car."

That's f'd up. You don't say some insensitive like that. It might be true, but that's someone's little girl.

Bottom line is some body made a mistake and someone needs to apologize. EMS falls under the Fire Chief right?

[BacktoBasics]

I guess I was wrong to assume that no matter how bad my injuries may be I would be given every opportunity to survive.

[MannyIsGod]

TRIAGE?

ING TRIAGE?

IN SAN ANTONIO?


Dude, what the ? Does anyone not seriously have a problem with that word being brought up in San Antonio as though we're in the middle of a ing war zone and we can't gather enough paramedics to treat everyone that needs it in a ING CAR ACCIDENT?

That fire chief is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of line. It IS their fault. They may not have caused an accident, but they have a responsibility to respond to those accidents correctly. You know, thats your ing job. Oh I can't believe he had the nerve to say that. If this was my family I'd have his nuts in a ing vice.

Triage in Iraq? OK I UNDERSTAND.

Triage in San Antonio at a small car accident? No, fix the ing problem and make sure that NEVER happens.

[BacktoBasics]

TRIAGE?

ING TRIAGE?

IN SAN ANTONIO?


Dude, what the ? Does anyone not seriously have a problem with that word being brought up in San Antonio as though we're in the middle of a ing war zone and we can't gather enough paramedics to treat everyone that needs it in a ING CAR ACCIDENT?

That fire chief is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of line. It IS their fault. They may not have caused an accident, but they have a responsibility to respond to those accidents correctly. You know, thats your ing job. Oh I can't believe he had the nerve to say that. If this was my family I'd have his nuts in a ing vice.

Triage in Iraq? OK I UNDERSTAND.

Triage in San Antonio at a small car accident? No, fix the ing problem and make sure that NEVER happens.

::fistpump::

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Gerry, don't be. It's just one of those things that make sense because you wrote it and I was making edits on the fly once the word came down of Smith's death. Seriously, though... thanks.

[Gerryatrics]

TRIAGE?

ING TRIAGE?

IN SAN ANTONIO?


Dude, what the ? Does anyone not seriously have a problem with that word being brought up in San Antonio as though we're in the middle of a ing war zone and we can't gather enough paramedics to treat everyone that needs it in a ING CAR ACCIDENT?

That fire chief is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of line. It IS their fault. They may not have caused an accident, but they have a responsibility to respond to those accidents correctly. You know, thats your ing job. Oh I can't believe he had the nerve to say that. If this was my family I'd have his nuts in a ing vice.

Triage in Iraq? OK I UNDERSTAND.

Triage in San Antonio at a small car accident? No, fix the ing problem and make sure that NEVER happens.

I was the only one that brought up the idea of triage and I am in no way affiliated with the San Antonio Fire Department or have any special knowledge of this incident. Do I think they were following advanced triage rules at the scene? Not at all. I doubt they were tagging people or felt they had insufficient resources available to them to fully treat all the victims. I was merely using the concept of triage as it's most basic form (the word means "to sort") to offer a possible explanation as to why medics would concentrate treatment on victims in immediate need of advanced medical care and not someone who they believed would not be able to recover and would die within minutes no matter what level of treatment they received. I pointed out earlier that among other things, they probably should have had enough people to at least have someone with her. Withholding care entirely on someone still alive in my opinion isn't excusable on an incident of this kind, no matter how close to death they believe the victim to be.

[King]

Eesh...I know her cousin. The Kim mentioned in the story.

[RashoFan]

Journal of Emergency Medical Service(Jems) has a website and has the link to Ksat.comabout the story. I get an eNewsleter in my email and it is in the headline....

http://www.jems.com/news_and_article...oman_Dead.html

[SequSpur]

TRIAGE?

ING TRIAGE?

IN SAN ANTONIO?


Dude, what the ? Does anyone not seriously have a problem with that word being brought up in San Antonio as though we're in the middle of a ing war zone and we can't gather enough paramedics to treat everyone that needs it in a ING CAR ACCIDENT?

That fire chief is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of line. It IS their fault. They may not have caused an accident, but they have a responsibility to respond to those accidents correctly. You know, thats your ing job. Oh I can't believe he had the nerve to say that. If this was my family I'd have his nuts in a ing vice.

Triage in Iraq? OK I UNDERSTAND.

Triage in San Antonio at a small car accident? No, fix the ing problem and make sure that NEVER happens.

I totally agree with this. It's their ing job to do whatever is necessary to transport someone to the hospital to get advanced critical care.

This guy who said this needs to ing wake up and publicly apologize.

Aren't parademics supposed to scoop up victims as quickly as possible and get them to the hospital and provide some type of intermediate care? I mean What the ? How in the does anyone in healthcare who has taking a Basic Lifesaver Course not know that someone doesn't have a pulse???

First off, where did these dip s take the course? Problem #1. Did their company make sure they were probably trained to assess A B Cs?????????????

Airway Breathing Circulation........

What the ?

Why are paramedics pronouncing anyone? hook up the bag, hook up the iv, hook up the defib and start ing saving someone. This was a child, a strong heart, good lungs, everything... and they ed it up.

The paramedics ed it up.

What a up of all proportions.

[SequSpur]

You know sometimes repe ion, years on the job, etc. etc. makes healthcare providers of sorts to lack compassion. These techs should've been busting their asses and getting those victims to the hospital.

I spent 8 years in the Army as a Medic and we would never leave someone to die. We would at least try to save their life. Who gave these techs the right to ing choose? What.. were you in a hurry to get back to your TV set at the ing station? Were you to tired? Were you ing stupid?

Sorry but this is a sorry ass excuse for a ed up incompetent system.

[RashoFan]

Word!