Got really drunk and Paramedics were called

[confusedguy]

I was drinking with one of my neighbors who told me he had some Everclear 95% alcohol. Foolishly I asked if I could take a shot of it. Ten minutes after taking the shot I dont remember anything from that night! He told me the next day that I passed out in my apartment with the music up loud so he broke in through the window where I was unconcious and unresponsive.

He was worried about me so he called 911. He told me paramedics were there and they kept trying to get me to sign some release and I didn't want to. They told me if I didnt they would take me to the hospital. Eventually I signed.

I woke up the next day thinking I just blacked out. Needless to say the experience has scared me and I have a few questions.

I am on probation and wondered if the paramedics would tell the police of what happened and it could somehow end up back to the probation department?

My thoughts are no because I didn't break any laws. No one was arrested or anything.

How would they have woken me up? With some kind of smelling salt?

There is no paperwork left behind so I cant see what I signed and don't remember any of it.

Was it just something saying that they had been there and I didn't need to go to the hospital?

Will I be billed?

Also it appears they didnt give me any type of medicine to my knowledge. Just wondering how the paramedics would handle someone who is passed out drunk. Thanks for your time. I am so embarassed by the whole situation. I have read that Everclear is illegal in many states for this very reason.

[ERDoc]

Your best bet when you have legal questions is to consult a lawyer. As for what the paramedics did, you should contact them.

[Timmy]

I think your best bet is to actually call the ambulance service that responded to you and put your questions forward to them. No of us were on the call or witnessed the situation so we wouldn’t be able to provide you with accurate information.

[fiznat]

Let me begin my reply by getting this out of the way: LOL.

haha okay,

I am on probation and wondered if the paramedics would tell the police of what happened and it could somehow end up back to the probation department?

Probably not. A lot of times police will respond to these kinds of scenes to assist the ambulance crew, but it doesn't sound like any laws were broken and I can't think of any reason why this would have any bearing on your probation.

How would they have woken me up? With some kind of smelling salt?

Doubtful. They probably just shook you until you woke up.

There is no paperwork left behind so I cant see what I signed and don't remember any of it.

We don't typically leave paperwork behind after a refusal. If you contact the ambulance service they should be able to supply you with a copy at your request.

Was it just something saying that they had been there and I didn't need to go to the hospital?

The complete paperwork will include the details of what the EMS crew found, what they did (their assessment/evaluation of you), what their advice was to you, and how you responded to that advice. It will also have your demographic information, times, and a detail of who was at your home that night.

Will I be billed?

No.

Also it appears they didnt give me any type of medicine to my knowledge. Just wondering how the paramedics would handle someone who is passed out drunk.

It is very unlikely that they gave you any medicines at all. They probably just assessed your level of responsiveness, checked your vital signs (possibly blood sugar), etc. There isn't much medical treatment for alcohol intoxication- generally the standard of care is to simply support the patient until they are able to clear the alcohol on their own.

Like others have said-- check with the ambulance service to get the details of what really happened, and try to stay away from that grain alcohol! haha.

[Lone Star]

This brings up an interesting point...

Per my medical/legal/ethics class, I'm to honor the wishes of a competent adult when they refuse transport/treatment.

Since acohol is known to cloud judgement, which leaves me to ask: Can an intoxicated individual REALLY be competent enough to refuse transport/treatment?

One of the calls during my last clinical rotation set, we got called to a motel room for a suspected cardiac arrest. Turns out that the man and woman in the room were drunk, he was drunker than she was. He also admitted to smoking marijuana in addition to the alcohol. He was extremely intoxicated and when asked if he knew what city he was in, he failed to answer correctly; in addition to not knowing that he was in a motel room. To me, this is considered a 'failure' in the grand scheme of things when assessing orientation.

The attending medic gave the guy 6 different opportunities to name the city he was in, and all 6 times, he failed. To my shock, they allowed the guy to sign the RMA (Refused Medical Attention) form and simply left him there.

Am I the only one who sees an issue here?

When querying an intoxicated patient, how many attempts do you let them have to guess the right answers before you ultimately consider the patient not 'competent' enough to make the decisions to refuse transport/treatment?

[DwayneEMTP]

This brings up an interesting point...

Per my medical/legal/ethics class, I'm to honor the wishes of a competent adult when they refuse transport/treatment.

Since acohol is known to cloud judgement, which leaves me to ask: Can an intoxicated individual REALLY be competent enough to refuse transport/treatment?

One of the calls during my last clinical rotation set, we got called to a motel room for a suspected cardiac arrest. Turns out that the man and woman in the room were drunk, he was drunker than she was. He also admitted to smoking marijuana in addition to the alcohol. He was extremely intoxicated and when asked if he knew what city he was in, he failed to answer correctly; in addition to not knowing that he was in a motel room. To me, this is considered a 'failure' in the grand scheme of things when assessing orientation.

The attending medic gave the guy 6 different opportunities to name the city he was in, and all 6 times, he failed. To my shock, they allowed the guy to sign the RMA (Refused Medical Attention) form and simply left him there.

Am I the only one who sees an issue here?

When querying an intoxicated patient, how many attempts do you let them have to guess the right answers before you ultimately consider the patient not 'competent' enough to make the decisions to refuse transport/treatment?

He was signing that he didn't want to go to the hospital because he had no injury, (his cardiac arrest had spontaneously resolved).

This is different in my book. If you come into my residence and take me to the hospital against my will simply because someone called and you found me drunk, I'm going to sue your ass off. I have every right to forget the name of my hotel and the city that I'm in. There is no law against that and it is not an absolute sign of a life threatening pathology.

AMA is Against Medical Advice. I'm not sure why they had him sign anything if they found that it was a false alarm, as it would not have been my advice for him to go to the hospital if he didn't call, though I'm not sure how this works most places. At the last place I worked at I would simply have called in, "Pt didn't call for an ambulance, no medical needed here." I'm not sure what a refusal would do when you know that you're getting a signature from someone unable to legally give it at this time?

On what grounds would you have forced him to go to the hospital? If your neighbor gets pissed because of your loud music and calls an ambulance saying he saw you stabbed, just to break up your party, are you then going to allow them to take you to the hospital, and incur those bills, simply because you're too drunk to sign a refusal? Not at my house Bubba...

If you see a life/limb threatening event, then you certainly need to take different steps. But not in this case.

And for the record, Everclear is the Bomb!!! But, yeah, it has a nasty habit of sneaking up and kicking the shit out of you if you're not careful...But if nothing has happened yet legally, then nothing is going to. You have no fear of going to the ambulance company and asking for your paperwork so that you can see what was done.

These are always good discussions I think...

Dwayne

[Happiness]

All of the above or your neighbour is pulling a fast one on ya lol, remember you blacked out.....do you know for sure it is all the truth.

[BAYAMedic]

I was catching up on a few posts without logging in, so I still had the ads on the right side. As you know Google does its best to put relevant ads to the page on which they are to be displayed. I got a laugh about what Google had to say to the OP.

Fireman1037

[Chief1C]

I'd say your neighbor is probably lying. I tell patients we don't report to the police. I also tell them, if they're too drunk to be cooperative, they're too drunk to refuse. It's highly unlikely that any LEO would be able to tell what you drank, unless you told them. It's possible to end up in a such a manner from drinking just about anything. It's also very dangerous, can lead to tragic death, but that's on the person holding the bottle. I'd say if you're worried, be glad you woke up, and don't get that drunk again. Just remember, the higher the proof, the less it takes to knock you out (or kill you).

Best to never let someone that drunk, be left alone. I deal with this stuff all the time, usually it's ppl I know very well, being in such a small town. I'd rather have someone pissed off at me, than die, and have their blood be on my hands, figuratively speaking.

You can never win, with a drunk person. Either they're a sweetheart in person, and an @$$hole drunk; vice-versa, or no matter what, they're always in a grouchy mood. But you can have the satisfaction of knowing, that in the morning, they'll be back to their old self, alive. Unless they drank themselves into brain damage. Then, once again, it's their own fault... However, I'm sure they'll try to blame and sue you for their own stupidity.

[ERDoc]

I admit I have not worked everywhere but in every place I've worked any call to 911 got PD response, even for medical calls. Based on that I would think PD was already involved and probably could care less about busting a drunk. In all honesty, I do question the validity of the original story/