Battery/Assault on EMS

[HERBIE1]

It depends heavily on the state's attorney and whether or not they will pursue the case, and how they interpret what happened. Even in areas where assault on EMS folk IS a felony, the state's attorney has to approve the charges. In my experience, it's a 50/50 proposition. Either they don't think the injuries are severe enough, or you get a liberal judge with an agenda who protects who he/she perceives to be the "real" victims.

Example:

We just had 2 cases here- one is being held over for a Grand Jury, the other case was dismissed by the judge. Why? Because- you guys will love this-

He said that those type of injuries (non lifethreatening) were part of our job. Even the other attorneys were amazed.

We plan on organizing a petition to get this judge removed come time for his retention vote.

[Richard B the EMT]

Where are these state atterneys and judges?

BTW, each of the 5 counties that comprise NYC, as well as every county in the state of NY, has a District Atterney, and we have a State Atterney General as well. My Queens County DA is Richard Brown, and the Manhattan DA is Cyrus Vance Jr. On TV, the Manhattan (New York County) DA is Jack McCoy, at least on Law And Order.

Mr. Vance had the dubious honor of, while announcing that the former head of the International Monitary Fund was being feleased on the rape charges, only to be interrupted by an earthquake. Betcha Youtube has the video of that!

Looks like my spellcheck isn't quite working, I meant to spell the word as "Attorney".

[scollins1191]

I am going to start my EMT-B course in January, what steps can you take while defending yourself? I`m sure there are things you can do only in certain situations. Is it up to the state that im in? I know that its an all too common part of the job for things like that to happen, did anyone have a problem keeping their cool in some of these situations? If you did, how did you handle it?

[Krysteen]

I am going to start my EMT-B course in January, what steps can you take while defending yourself? I`m sure there are things you can do only in certain situations. Is it up to the state that im in? I know that its an all too common part of the job for things like that to happen, did anyone have a problem keeping their cool in some of these situations? If you did, how did you handle it?

Essentially, for me it begins at scene safety. I never enter a scene where law hasn't cleared it first, such as an assault call. If at anytime I have felt in danger, I have left to a safe distance until law arrives. Even if that means leaving your patient. One instance I had a family member becoming aggressive towards me. It was one of those I allowed the person to block my only exit, he was not complying with my requests to wait outside, and once he came toward me, began threatening me, I made my escape and called law for backup.

We can do no harm to our patients. Even our restraints are padded as to not hurt them. In my experience, my next step is applying soft restraints, that is if law has not cuffed them first. It depends on your protocol, ours is pretty liberal. Now in my protocol, the way I find most these patients they also end up backboarded as I can't rule anything out. Another backup to restraining, works well, but even they can wiggle loose from that. Just have to really monitor their airway.

I can easily say I have applied more restraints then say given ASA for chest pain. That's just our common problem in my area. Pretty sad. Then there is also chemically restraining them, when and if you decide to become medic:)

Boy would I love to have some other means of defending myself like a taser! But unfortunately, that will never happen. Like I said, for the most part I have been doing this for 8 yrs, this has worked pretty well so far. In this case, I was taking c-spine on a patient. I was in the direct path of the "slime". I immediately backed up cause to me saliva can be just as deadly. LE intervened. Pt restrained, and I had to go on as if nothing happened. Sucks but that's the way it is.

You HAVE to keep your cool in this field. Not only applying to instances like these but everything you encounter. To me that is probably the most important quality an EMT must have. Everyone is looking for you to calm the situation, and if I look "freaked" I have just made a bad situation worse. Inside, yes, I feel all the emotions. I just keep a lid on them.

HERBIE, I think your right for my area. That is pretty much what I was told verbatim.

[HERBIE1]

Let's put it this way- I've been involved in a few of these cases, with various outcomes. The "best" case- was transporting someone who had an alleged seizure PTA. Pt now Awake, fully oriented, walking and talking, calm and cooperative. A friend walked with him to our rig as we arrived and said she witnessed his seizure. As we were assessing him and asking a couple questions, he went absolutely nuts- violent, kicking, swinging, punching, all over us, and even bit me on the hand. Finally restrained the guy- after it was an all out brawl and I was literally fighting for my and my partner's safety. Turns out he was on PCP- the "friend" with him was his girlfriend who was mad at him for fooling around and apparently spiked one of his joints to get even. We ended up transporting him with LEO's, and we all had injuries from our fight- including the patient. As we arrived at the hospital, the girlfriend was now upset that her poor, "innocent" boyfriend was hurt and she raised hell. She wanted our jobs, a lawsuit, etc. The police later explained what happened and apparently she backed off since I never heard anything more about that.

Long story somewhat short, the states attorney refused to file felony charges, even though I had to go through the whole routine of testing and follow up bloodwork and the guy was let out on bond. Of course he never showed up for court. About six months later, he was picked up for a parole violation in another town and was shipped back here. Since my case was still open, I was called in, and I identified him in a line up, and I asked what he was being charged with, and whether he would be let out again.

Not this time- he was now being charged in the murder of his "loyal" girlfriend, the who was upset with us for hurting her man. Apparently he beat her to death with a baseball bat. They asked if I still wanted to pursue my case, and I said only if his murder case somehow got thrown out or he was acquitted. We went to all the court dates, but never had to testify. I have never seen such open hate in anyone's eyes before- as if WE were responsible for his troubles. He was found guilty of murder, sentenced to life with no chance for parole.

Extreme example? Maybe. Point is, you never know what might happen to you or when.

[Rural Medik]

If this helps...

In Virginia, an assault of a law enforcement officer/firefighter/paramedic (while on duty) is all the same statute/code. It is classified as a relatively low felony, but a felony none the less.

[ninecho1]

I have been grabbed, spit on, stuff thrown, etc. I have never actually been hit or kicked to cause injury(knocking on wood). But of the few co workers who have been hit or kicked with injury, it was unfortunately more of a process for them to go through the whole pressing charges/going to court process. Two of them were plead down to insignificant charges, one didn't stick at all.