NJ EMT dies in water rescue

[snoopy911]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8333083

What's everyone's take on this story?

RIP EMT Michael Kenwood, Rest Easy brother

[paramedicmike]

Monday morning quarterbacking is a bit too easy here. Even more so with incomplete facts.

There's an awful lot of questions, though.

[Chief1C]

Someone died, what more is there to say? Perhaps a public beating of whom ever drove into the water? People in the public are too damn stupid, I see so many people driving through flood waters yesterday, to avoid a detour. In fact, he or she should be charged with the death of this EMT.

[Richard B the EMT]

My condolences to the Kenwood family, and the extended family of his department.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Did I read somewhere that there was no-one in the car when they got to it?

[paramedicmike]

Why, yes you did! In the article Snoopy linked. Last paragraph.

[BushyFromOz]

So, they get sent to a car in the water and decide to enter the water without confirmation of whether there is anyone in the vehicle, decide after getting in the water that its too dangerous to proceed then one of them dies.

Does that sum it up?

Yeah, i think i have a problem with it.

[snoopy911]

I believe that they had determined no one was in the car before they decided to turn back. At least that is what I had heard on one of the other local news stations. Although this whole situation raises some red flags, I am not quick to judge, as there are many things left unsaid, as Mike stated. I think we would need a lot more information before we could make a determination.

[uglyEMT]

Being a responder during this hurricane I can relate. We had ALOT of "judgement" calls during those 48 hrs. This was definatley a trajedy to say the least and my condolences to his family. It is easy to arm chair quarterback but unless we were there I don't think we can accuratly surmise the situation.

With the rapid raise of flood waters during this storm it is easy to assume when they arrived on scene with the SWR team (which according to the article he was part of) they surmised it was a "go" for a rescue and in the course of said rescue the waters overwhelmed them. Be it a real rescue or the car was moved there by said flood waters they recived the call and answered it albeit to a tragic end.

I personally witnessed the rapid rise of water during this storm. Answered a call to a residential home for DOB and parked in the driveway which was dry, entered stabilized for transfer and by the time we left the residence had ankle deep rushing water between us and the rig. Went "upstream" and worked our way to the rig, grabbed one of our recovery lines and were able to transfer w/o incident but made us realize how dangerous this storm was. BTW I am part of an SWR team so I did have training to go and get the rope so did my partner.

For those that worked during Irene it definatley was an experience. One I think may change some training and protocols in the future.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Being a responder during this hurricane I can relate. We had ALOT of "judgement" calls during those 48 hrs. This was definatley a trajedy to say the least and my condolences to his family. It is easy to arm chair quarterback but unless we were there I don't think we can accuratly surmise the situation.

With the rapid raise of flood waters during this storm it is easy to assume when they arrived on scene with the SWR team (which according to the article he was part of) they surmised it was a "go" for a rescue and in the course of said rescue the waters overwhelmed them. Be it a real rescue or the car was moved there by said flood waters they recived the call and answered it albeit to a tragic end.

I personally witnessed the rapid rise of water during this storm. Answered a call to a residential home for DOB and parked in the driveway which was dry, entered stabilized for transfer and by the time we left the residence had ankle deep rushing water between us and the rig. Went "upstream" and worked our way to the rig, grabbed one of our recovery lines and were able to transfer w/o incident but made us realize how dangerous this storm was. BTW I am part of an SWR team so I did have training to go and get the rope so did my partner.

For those that worked during Irene it definatley was an experience. One I think may change some training and protocols in the future.

It seems that this could have been done differently but I defer judgement until all the facts are in and not just the reporting of one news reporter.

It's been a deadly week for EMS Crews. This gives us time to focus on what/who is worth saving. I already posted a question but it comes down to this, we put our lives on the line every single day. We make judgement calls that sometimes bite us painfully, very very painfully in the ass.

Are some rescues too dangerous? Are some helicopter scene flights or transports unnecessary? The public expects us to risk our lives to save some idiot who decided to go do something that 100 out of 100 people would never do yet when we determine that it's too dangerous, it is us in EMS/Fire or law enforcement who get the shaft for putting our safety first.

The Darwin Award runners up all have public safety to thank for their still being alive. (well most of them at least).