2 EMTs, patient killed in Ga. ambulance crash

[x635 4,066]

Very sad. RIP.

OCILLA, Ga. (AP) — An ambulance with its lights and sirens on collided Thursday with a semitrailer on a Georgia highway, killing the two medics and the patient on board, authorities said.

The Georgia State Patrol said in a news release that the wreck happened around 5 a.m. Thursday on state Highway 32, near the small town of Ocilla in south Georgia.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/2-emts-patient-killed-ga-ambulance-crash-152730299.html

[INIT915 1,119]

The patient was emergent enough to requires RLS at 5:00 a.m., but not so emergent as to require one of the providers to ride in the back? Am I missing something?

[ex-commish 490]

Rest in peace

[STAT213 332]

The patient was emergent enough to requires RLS at 5:00 a.m., but not so emergent as to require one of the providers to ride in the back? Am I missing something?

I'm betting you're missing out on an accurate report by the media, which is shocking in and of itself.

[EMT111 149]

I'm betting you're missing out on an accurate report by the media, which is shocking in and of itself.

The entire thing seems weird, an interfacility transport requiring red lights and siren?! Souldn't they be stabilized first before leaving the original hospital? Also, since it was an interfacility transport, there may have been someone else aboard like a nurse or someone that they would have on the specialized transport rigs who wasn't killed and therefore they weren't mentioned

[crcocr1 8]

The entire thing seems weird, an interfacility transport requiring red lights and siren?! Souldn't they be stabilized first before leaving the original hospital? Also, since it was an interfacility transport, there may have been someone else aboard like a nurse or someone that they would have on the specialized transport rigs who wasn't killed and therefore they weren't mentioned

Like the poster immediately before you, I'm hoping we are missing something and the press should have stated a paramedic was in the back of the ambulance. However, generally speaking, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires a hospital only to provide a screening and stabilizing treatment to the best of its ability. In this case, the local community hospital may not have the capabilities to fully stabilize the patient and therefore provided advanced care to its ability and then recommended the transfer of the patient to definitive care at a secondary or tertiary facility. In which case, absent a state statute, regulation or case law within that state to the contrary, the hospital transferred the the patient to the ambulance to provide that definitive care and the ambulance would have been transporting a critical patient requiring a lights and siren approach. Further, a nurse is not required, and in some states, may not have the authority to perform any care in the back of an ambulance, depending on state statute.

Of course, this analysis is mere speculation as we don't have the benefit of all the facts, only the media slant placed upon a portion of those facts available to the media.

Edited June 7, 2013 by crcocr1