Medics make big mistake!! Or did they?

[Britt207]

Well if the mother was just going to refuse care for her child, why would she have called 911 and not just taken her to the ER herself?

[p3medic]

Who knows? People do it all the time, its not like some rare phenomenon. A mother refusing transport of her child (assuming this is the case) has every right to do so. No cop or doctor on a radio is going to authorize removing a kid from the mother against the mothers will unless you have some really good reasons, i.e. mom is drunk, stoned, talking to the wall, house is in disaray, safety issue, etc...An awake kid with a small head lac acting appropriately is not a candidate for taking the kid against the parents will. I am making an assumption as to the small (8 suture)lac, and the fact the kid had a skull fx probably wasn't picked up until x ray at the hospital, othewise the doc at the clinic wouldn't have sent her by taxi.

[spenac]

You have to be a patient advocate and do what's best for the patient, call the police to assist and as witnesses. Yes, sometimes you have to take someone against their will or the will of their caretaker/parent. This is all situational and I don't think it applies to this situation at all, obviously. Medics don't get reprimanded for doing what they are supposed to do.

You are the medical professional not the parent (in most cases).

Actually CYA could be why they were disciplined. Hospital knows it will lose less money if the Paramedics sue for wrongful discipline than if the girls mother sues.

And it really sounds like the clinic screwed up as well.

Now as far as forcing child to go if parents say no, big legal mess. You do not want to go there.

[spenac]

Well if the mother was just going to refuse care for her child, why would she have called 911 and not just taken her to the ER herself?

That happens daily. Get called by paniced parent, cover blood parent calms down. Realizes not so bad and dang I can't afford that big bill so thanks for the bandage, but I'll take the kid my self.

[Happiness]

Iv read this over and over where does it say the mother refused transport. I read that the medics suggested she do it herself. Even if a parent refuses transport we as paramedics have a duty to be that childs advocate and get them the help they need even if it envolves bringing in the local police. But I do agree that we are not getting the whole story and we have all made bad judgement calls in our careers. I hope the full story comes out so that others can learn from the mistake that the medics in this story made.

[p3medic]

I don't see how the local police can force the issue any more than you. If the child is awake, alert with a head lac, and mom is informed of the possible consequence of not tranporting via ambulance and chooses not to, thats the end of it, period. A parent makes health care decisions for their children, so unless this patient is obviously in extremis, no one is going to force the mom to send the child with EMS. I realize in this instant the mom alleged she did not refuse transport, in which case I hope the medics have a signed refusal to refresh mom's memory, otherwise they screwed up.

[under-dreaming]

It is likely that through the passing of time, there must have been some errors of omission and commission from the patients mother. Perhaps she didn't tell the story accurately to the paramedics on scene. It just doesn't make any sense for a licensed paramedic to tell somebody that the kid doesn't need an ambulance after a television fell on their head! We all know that there can be more than meets the eye in those types of head injuries, which is why nobody with that kind of training would do such a thing in their right mind.

Likewise for the medical clinic. If they were given an accurate depiction of the events, they should have acted differently. As for the public apologies from the hospital... sometimes businesses like to go with "the customer is always right" principle... it keeps patients walking through the front doors. My gut is telling me that the mother is looking to make some money off of this. Money has a funny way of making people exaggerate things.

[firedoc5]

I'm just going to make a quick and simple reply on what I got out of reading the OP. Sounds as if the Medics, when they got there, didn't think it was all that bad and did not need an ambulance. Did they even take all the vitals and exam? They might have just made a quick assessment and didn't think that other than transport, there was nothing else for them to do. There could be a number reasons why they thought their services were not needed. But I'll also go as far as saying that the Medics may have been tired, or burned out, etc. and just didn't want to transport her. They may have just wanted to go back to their station as soon as they could. It was just a bad error in judgement all the way around as far as the Medics go. And their reaction, or lack there of, may have falsely given the mother a sense of it not being too bad. When the Medics said that she could just drive her to an ER or some place, the mother may have thought the clinic was "good enough". Get a few sutures and a lollipop and be on their way. The clinic screwed up too. They should have called EMS immediately. Are they apologizing too, I wonder.

In the OP it didn't mention the "why's and the because's" that they didn't think they were needed. Whenever we had a head trauma of a child, especially if requiring stitches, we always transported. Depending on the size of the child, we had different ways to immobilize them the best we could.

But if probation is all they got, they got off very lightly. When you hear about something like this you almost get the "knee jerk" reaction of saying they should have been fired. But it's not a decision to to make quickly. Suspended, probation, demotion, dismissed, or a combination, are the things to take into consideration. I've worked at some places that by their standards, you would be fired no questions asked.

So, all in all, The Medics screwed up, the clinic screwed up, the whole story is screwed up.

Sorry, I wrote more than I thought I would.

[BushyFromOz]

I cant get over just how quick people are to sack people in these forums.

these blokes could have their combined 55 years experience of ansolute perfect performance and you would fire them for one stuf up??

Doesn't really solve the problem (if there is one), and i dont trust the media to have fair and impartial reporting in any case