Don't Grab a Shower Chair

[akflightmedic]

Saw this on a paramedic job board...

* Details for*** LAWYER WANTED IN LAFD PARAMEDIC GROSS NEGLIGENCE CASE!!! ***

* Address:North Hollywood, CA 91605 (map)

* Date Posted:07/30/10

* Job Type:Contract

Description NO RECOVERY, NO FEE LAWYER WANTED IN PARAMEDIC GROSS NEGLIGENCE CASE!!! My Dad had a stroke on the 24th and I called the LA Fire Dept(LAFD, LA City) Paramedics. In the process of transporting him they grabbed a random chair(without checking to see how it was made or how strong it was) in my house to carry him downstairs. The chair broke in two and my Dad fell and broke his back(10th lumbar in to several pieces!). The chair was a “shower chair”, made of hollow aluminum, and was designed to separate into 2 pieces by hand. It’s not bolted together, but snaps together. It was designed for an older person to sit(sit only) in the shower with only. It was never designed to carry a person by grabbing the top and bottom two legs. This is a clear case of a screw-up/gross negligence by the LA Fire Department! The LAFD Paramedic vans always carry carrying equipment such as backboards, roll out flexible tarp/nylon stretchers and conventional 2 pole stretchers. The paramedics failed to use their own carrying equipment and instead made a terrible choice by grabbing this shower chair without even turning it over to see if it was even bolted together!! I need a gutsy lawyer with balls who is willing to take this to trial if necessary!! No wimpy lawyers need apply here! They odds are high that the City of LA will settle if threatened with a lawsuit. They will pay rather than go to trial! A panel of jurors will almost certainly sympathize with my father and his terrible injury at the hands of the incompetent LAFD Paramedics. If you can handle this or know someone that can, please get back to me!

Ad ID: 4954422

Read more: http://losangeles.ebayclassifieds.com/legal/north-hollywood/lawyer-wanted-in-lafd-paramedic-gross-negligence-case/?ad=4954422&mpch=ads#ixzz0vKf8Cl9y

[daedalus]

wow... I know of this incident. Would elaborate but I don't think it would be a good idea. Amazing they actually are going through and looking for an attorney.

[zippyRN]

do they not have carry chairs or evacuation chairs on ambulances in the US ?

they are one of the most widely used pieces of equipment in the UK primarily due to the fact a lot more homes in the UK are small and /or multi storey because of the high land prices in this crowded island ...

[Chief1C]

Whether they had or didn't have something on board to remove the victim, it's a lose/lose. If they simply say, we had none of these things, they'll want to know why the ambulance was in service.

[fiznat]

Sucks. I've used other types of chairs before to remove people short distances (out of a tight space or down 1 or 2 steps), but it seems like things went particularly bad for these guys. Without knowing any of the details it seems like they really oughta just used the stair chair, but who knows. It amazes me how quickly you can get into hot water on this job...

[Richard B the EMT]

A "Stair Chair" is required equipment on any ambulance operating in the state of New York.

FDNY EMS is in the process of field testing several brands of these chairs, as the current manufacturer is no longer making the model we've been using. All of the models being tested are with "tractor treads" to assist on staircases.

I think we in NYC area started calling the carry chair a "stair chair", because the original name I learned was scaring the patients too much: a "Cardiac Chair"!

Rules, as you know, are always changing. When I started 37 years ago, we were allowed to transport in the stair chairs. There were several types of devices to fasten an occupied chair to the floor. Now, the patients must either be laying on the stretcher, or seated on the "crew bench", seat belted in, in an appropriate manner. A bit more labor intensive, but I remember how the chairs swayed just during regular driving.

[CBEMT]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like most of urban CA use the stretchers that tilt way down at the feet/way up at the head to transition into a rolling chair for their small elevators in the housing projects... maybe since they have those they don't feel like they need stairchars?

In my state they aren't required, but everybody has one. I've used a rolling computer desk-type chair to move a patient from a cramped room into a larger one, but I would never actually carry a patient in something they weren't strapped to.

Edited August 10, 2010 by CBEMT

[ERDoc]

I will start by saying that my only knowledge of this case is based on a very biased advertisement from someone looking to make millions. Was the crew wrong for using the chair? Probably. They have no idea how strong it is. It sounds like there may have been some laziness on their part for not getting a stair chair (assuming there was one in the ambulance). Does it constitute negligence? Hard to say with the given info (presented in a very biased manner).

This person is obviously looking to hit the lottery with this event. How much should the crew be responsible for? My opinion (assuming they were negligent) is for medical bills associated with the back injury. I find it funny that he/she is advertising for a lawyer. Why? With the several hundred personal injury lawyers that you can see on TV in any give 30 minutes, why would you need to advertise to find one? My guess is that he/she has already contacted them and been turned down. We had a case where an ambulance parked with one side on the curb and when they got the pt out the strecher tipped over. The pt required several stitched. It was an 80 something year old who was coming in with a stroke. The family tried to sue the ambulance crew but couldn't find a lawyer who would take the case. They were told that there was not enough money to make it worth it. How much future pain and suffering could you really sue for in someone who is 80+ and had a hemiplegic stroke?

The last thing I am curious about is, where is the 10th lumbar vertebrae?

[Aeromedic]

I'll admit to having used kitchen chairs to get patients out of tight spots before (if they were already on the chair and time was a factor) but only to a place where it was possible to transfer to stair chair, stretcher etc...

I can see an ad like that REELING in the high power attorneys **snicker** but as for actual negligence, it looks like a judgement call that just went wrong. I can't say what I would have done, because I don't know the whole story behind it. I would prefer to use a stair chair if I'm going any further than out of the bathroom but sometimes improvisation happens.

[Chief1C]

The last thing I am curious about is, where is the 10th lumbar vertebrae?

S-5? lolz