Christmas and drugs...

[akflightmedic]

Yes, it is December already. You have been busting your hump all year long, barely getting by. You work overtime after overtime in the not so pleasant neighborhoods. Every paycheck, you go pay off the payday loan knowing all too well you will get another one between now and next payday. You have great kids and a great wife who you would do anything in the world for. You want them to reap the rewards of your hard work, yet something always seems to come up and set you back.

Then it happens, you get toned out again to crack alley for an assault. PD is on scene and it is secure. You roll on in to find your patient unconcious. He is a well known drug dealer and evidently he angered another dealer who knocked him out with a baseball bat. It is so busy, you have no backup for who knows how long and the weather is too bad for air support. The patient is maintaining his airway on his own so there is no great need for backup anyways. You and your partner decide to cspine, board and get the heck out of dodge. En route to the ER, your partner is busy watching the road. You apply O2 and start your IVs as well as getting vitals. Everything is stable, he is just unconcious. You start checking his pockets for positive ID and lo and behold you find a wad of cash in his front pocket..20s, 50s and 100s. You check the other pockets for ID and find two more pockets stuffed with cash. You glance up and notice your partner never saw a thing as he is watching the road not the rearview mirror. Holding all this cash, many thoughts race through your mind. You think of your kids, wife, bills, the season to give and recieve...what would you do?

I ask you to dig deep and answer honestly, there is no wrong answer as the choices you make are your own. I suspect I will get a lot of "honest" answers of I would turn it in, but I will sit back and see what happens.

[chaser]

First I would wonder why his pockets weren't gone through before by the baseball bat boy but I will play the game. :wink: I would shove it all in a lab bag and give it to the police. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have, and I understand how this money came about, but still would not keep it. Honest answer AK. I once found a wallet in a Starbucks bathroom. No one saw me, no one waiting outside. My (now ex) husband and I were leaving for a vacation. This wallet was stuffed with cash and hell, you can always use more cash on vacation. What did I do? I turned it in, every single dollar.

[Ridryder 911]

How ironic, I actually had a similar case 25+ years ago. The difference was instead of crank, it was a dealer that drove his auto into a river and he died from an mva, hypothermia and froze. As we were awaiting for LEO to arrive, we found a roll of money (about $7k) and a bag of 747's (Quaaludes) about $5k worth.... My partner and I looked at each other .. here it was Christmas time and we were making about $2.25 hr/for 16 out of 24 hr shift. My partner had a child <2 yr and his wife was pregnant now.

So the dilemma... no one would know ..... cash.. more than 3 months salaries for us.

After, a brief period of silence and chuckles.. then stating how unfair life was... we finally handed it over to LEO (which I wonder if it made it back to the station). But, we knew we did the right thing. We could enjoy the season with clear conscience, and we both did not want "dirty money".. the rewards of having principles and integrity is much more important than money.

R/r 911

[becksdad]

Probably all or most of us have been presented with similar situations. I have never encountered the quantities of cash talked about here, but I've gotta go with chaser and Rid. (of course, who's going to say they would take the money and run??!!).

But, I have always felt this way about money and possessions: "It wasn't mine to begin with". This is also what kind of upsets me about people fighting over inheritances, possessions, etc. Also, like Rid, it is good to sleep at night with a clear conscience. I don't think I would be able to look my partners, patients, or supervisor in the eyes if I did something like that. I think it would destroy my career. Not from the fact of maybe getting caught, but destroy from the inside out.

Also, I have always tried to teach my kids that their lives are determined by their decisions - one will reap either the consequences or the rewards for every action one takes. How could I possibly teach them to choose well if I did something like that?

ON a less ethical note - how much cash is your career worth? Because if someone was discovered stealing from patients - any patients, they would be finished in EMS. And rightly so.

[Michael]

I swear by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone ...

... I will preserve the purity of my life and my art ...

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing ...

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.

[Lone Star]

Personally, even though the 'wads of cash' would come in REAL handy right about that time....I know that I would hear my father's voice in the back of my head saying something along the lines of, "I taught you better than that, boy! If it ain't yours, DONT TOUCH IT!'

Even though knowing that my partner is too busy watching the road and not me, I would still have to live with my concience, (and more often than not, it't an unrelenting nag about morals!).

I don't care how the pt came up with the money, that's not my job to worry about things like that. I don't care how the pt kept the money after getting his skull 'tenderized' by a baseball bat....my job is to deal with the pt, and provide the best medical attention that I can.

My personal thought on going through a pts belongings (ie: pockets, handbags/billfolds, etc) is to ALWAYS have a witness present. I don't want to be in a postition to be accused of something I didn't do....or not to be able to 'prove' that I didn't do it.

In short, I would have a witness present as I searched for identification, and in this case, turn the money over to law enforcement

[itku2er]

I wouldn't take it. To me that is blood money that someone has or lost their lives over. Drugs kill things slowly it kills people, and drug dealers killl each other, people kill to get the money to buy the drugs. No Iwouldnt take it. Besides that is just morally wrong. Chances are they would never find out about it thinking the other dude took it but still wrong is wrong and right is right and that is JUST WRONG. The one thing that would get me would be...I HAVE TO LOOK AT ME IN THE MIRROR EVERYDAY.

gezz AK you are sure making an OLD women think......

later

Terri

[paramedicmike]

Well, if the patient was a known drug dealer, and the cops were on scene, why was he placed in my ambulance without a police pat down first? I don't care that he's unconscious. He still gets checked.

But, in an effort to go along with AK's exercise, let's say it happens.

My first reaction at pulling such a wad of cash out of someone's pocket would be a very auditory, "Holy SH IT!". This would probably draw an immediate reaction from my partner. Should I manage to keep my mouth shut upon the initial find, I don't know that I'd keep it shut for long. I'd ask my partner to radio ahead and have the cops meet us at the receiving hospital. I don't want that much cash. I wouldn't know what to do with that much cash.

Most importantly, it's not mine. It doesn't belong to me. I would not keep it or make any attempt to conceal it from either my partner (a.k.a. very important witness to all of this) or the police.

Not because AK presented this scenario and I'm worried about what others might think of me should I say, "yeah...I'd keep it." Turning it into the cops is the right thing to do. I may be a lot of things. But a thief I'm not. And taking this dealer's money would make me no better than him. And I'm not about to stoop to that level.

The right thing to do is turn it over to the cops. That's what I'd do.

-be safe.

[Dustdevil]

Hmmm... lemme think here. No matter what, the patient is not going to get to keep this money, so the concept of stealing from him is a non-issue. So my dilemma is this; does the city get this money to split with the Federal Government in order to buy more fancy guns and SWAT team training for more jack-booted Nazi tactics against American citizens, or does my mom get a big chunk taken out of her mortgage?

I'll just say this. I love my mother more than any cop or drug dealer, and I won't lose a moment's sleep over it.

[chaser]

So Dust, your giving it to Mom???? I bet she would kick your a**.