Rhode Island
GoLocalProv | News | NEW: RI Firefighter EMTs Suspended for Failing to Treat Emergency Call Victim – Who Later Died
Monday, March 13, 2023
PHOTO: File
The Rhode Island Division of Well being (RIDOH) has suspended two licensed Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), after a name for a “particular person down” in the end resulted within the affected person’s loss of life.
Based on RIDOH, the affected person handed away following the failure of the required state remedy protocol from the 2 healthcare professionals.
Terrence O’Neill and Michael Garcia, whereas employed as Pawtucket Hearth Division Firefighter/EMTs, responded to the emergency name in January 2022 for an unresponsive male mendacity in opposition to a snowbank.
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RIDOH acknowledged within the suspension orders that the 2 EMTs “failed to stick to the Rhode Island Statewide Emergency Providers Protocols” for routine affected person care.
“The unresponsive particular person described within the suspensions did go away,” RIDOH spokesperson Joseph Wendelken confirmed on Monday, after a GoLocal inquiry.
O’Neill is suspended for 90 days, and Garcia was ordered a 30-day suspension.
About Incident
Based on RIDOH, the emergency name on January 30, 2022, was for the male affected person who in the end handed away, whose identification has not been launched.
Two extra bystanders had been on the scene, based on RIDOH.
RIDOH acknowledged amongst its findings that the EMTs didn’t “consider mechanism of damage,” and didn’t “receive and doc the affected person’s chief grievance, historical past of the current sickness, previous medical historical past, present drugs and allergy symptoms to drugs” as required by regulation.
Within the consent orders, RIDOH stated that the EMTs didn’t “carry out a main evaluation and acquire very important indicators” — and that the affected person’s jacket was by no means eliminated.
Moreover required protocol required was not adhered to stated RIDOH, who acknowledged that O’Neill “didn’t honestly doc procedures and thus falsified a medical report.”
Furthermore, the state’s emergency protocol states {that a} affected person be transported to the closest applicable Hospital Emergency Facility — or doc a affected person’s refusal — which the EMTs didn’t do.
The RI Division of Well being suspensions had been made official on Monday. PHOTO: RIDOH
Suspension Requrements
Now, the EMTs’ licenses are suspended.
They’re each required to finish a complete evaluate of the Rhode Island Statewide Emergency Medical Providers Protocols with an teacher assigned by RIDOH.
Upon profitable completion of the necessities below the suspension, they are going to be positioned on probation which incorporates required hours of affected person evaluation at a hospital emergency division “below the supervision of the ambulance service doctor.”
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