Now, before I start my post tonight, I am going to quantify it by saying that I have never been a dispatcher. I have been in plenty of situations that require me to work through situations on the phone, but never in an emergent situation. I have spoken to many dispatchers after difficult situations, but I will never be able to fully appreciate what this lady went through.
By now, there are not many people in EMS that don't know about the nurse refusing to do CPR on a dying lady. There have been plenty of posts regarding this situation from magazine and newspaper articles, to news reports, and even other blogs/tweets about the situation. I have been thinking about the situation today and wondering just what it would have felt to by in the position of the dispatcher. You have a woman on the phone unwilling to do anything other than wait while the life of an elderly person passed in front of her. Further commentary could state that CPR may not have helped in her situation; none the less, the situation presented itself that CPR needed to be conducted and wasn't.
In listening to the audio tapes, the dispatcher was trying her best to follow her protocol and provide the assistance necessary to start the process of helping this patient prior to the arrival of the Emergency Services teams that were on their way. Having been in the field for many years, I have received the panics dispatch calls where you could tell there was something more to the call then just another routine situation. I have been on the receiving end where you could tell the dispatcher was trying to get people help as soon as possible and it seemed like time just wouldn't pass fast enough for the help to arrive. But I have never been sitting on the scene of a call and stood by while dispatch called out for me to help, and I never did anything.
Ask my wife, I have been in plenty of situations where I stopped the car, family and all, to help at a car wreck that happened as I was coming by. At that point in time, I had no duty to act, no worries of litigation, and no worries that I was in the wrong if I passed by; but I knew that I had to do something. Now in this situation the dispatch was in the same position, she had a duty to act. Her duty was to notify the responders where the team was, and then to inform the individual calling how to conduct CPR and start the chain of survival. The Emergency Cardiovascular Care committee has published their results and the AHA and ARC teach hundreds of thousands of individuals on an annual basis that CPR is easy and everyone can do it. Just look, they had one of the actors from the movie "The Hangover" doing CPR on TV to the disco tune of "Stayin' Alive". But the actions weren't followed, the individual on the other end of the line refused to do CPR, and the woman ended up dying.
Whether the agencies protocols were to not allow staff to help, I must say that my thoughts go out to that dispatcher, and the family of the woman who passed. Maybe we can all take a few minutes, work with the businesses within our community and show just how much the act of CPR can do.
Take Care and Stay Safe!!!!
Combomedic.
By now, there are not many people in EMS that don't know about the nurse refusing to do CPR on a dying lady. There have been plenty of posts regarding this situation from magazine and newspaper articles, to news reports, and even other blogs/tweets about the situation. I have been thinking about the situation today and wondering just what it would have felt to by in the position of the dispatcher. You have a woman on the phone unwilling to do anything other than wait while the life of an elderly person passed in front of her. Further commentary could state that CPR may not have helped in her situation; none the less, the situation presented itself that CPR needed to be conducted and wasn't.
In listening to the audio tapes, the dispatcher was trying her best to follow her protocol and provide the assistance necessary to start the process of helping this patient prior to the arrival of the Emergency Services teams that were on their way. Having been in the field for many years, I have received the panics dispatch calls where you could tell there was something more to the call then just another routine situation. I have been on the receiving end where you could tell the dispatcher was trying to get people help as soon as possible and it seemed like time just wouldn't pass fast enough for the help to arrive. But I have never been sitting on the scene of a call and stood by while dispatch called out for me to help, and I never did anything.
Ask my wife, I have been in plenty of situations where I stopped the car, family and all, to help at a car wreck that happened as I was coming by. At that point in time, I had no duty to act, no worries of litigation, and no worries that I was in the wrong if I passed by; but I knew that I had to do something. Now in this situation the dispatch was in the same position, she had a duty to act. Her duty was to notify the responders where the team was, and then to inform the individual calling how to conduct CPR and start the chain of survival. The Emergency Cardiovascular Care committee has published their results and the AHA and ARC teach hundreds of thousands of individuals on an annual basis that CPR is easy and everyone can do it. Just look, they had one of the actors from the movie "The Hangover" doing CPR on TV to the disco tune of "Stayin' Alive". But the actions weren't followed, the individual on the other end of the line refused to do CPR, and the woman ended up dying.
Whether the agencies protocols were to not allow staff to help, I must say that my thoughts go out to that dispatcher, and the family of the woman who passed. Maybe we can all take a few minutes, work with the businesses within our community and show just how much the act of CPR can do.
Take Care and Stay Safe!!!!
Combomedic.
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