An uninjured passenger can indeed refuse care and transport. EMTs can be guilty of assault and battery for forcing care and transport. Not me....the patient better clearly be in urgent need of care before I risk anything. That being said as an EMT I have held down a patient till they were secured and transported. Head injury due to a bike/car accident. Patient had no idea what he was doing. Witnesses stated there was LOC. Patient was unable to have a conversation with police or EMS...so he got the treatment. EMTs are not paid enough money in the world to take on all they do.
Several yrs ago my son lost his jobs & in between jobs. He had no insurance. He was snowboarding & took a hit. An hour later some friends thought that he might have been injured.. The paramedics came. He tried to resist & tell them that he was fine - basically tired. They hauled him off in a helicopter to a regional hospital. Again he refused to be treated but they went on with it. Found NOTHING wrong with him. Now guess what that bill was that had to be paid out of his own wallet.
I cannot praise the EMTs who transported me to the ER in the middle of the night last year. They were professional, kind, (and funny to boot). I cannot say enough good things about them. Life is not perfect, but when I needed them they were there. I would also like to put in a plug for everyone learning to do CPR, because you never know when you might need it. And you don’t have to be perfect at it.
Thanks for what you do, it’s a difficult job but there are likely a lot of us out here who appreciate it. I know I do (altho I probably didn’t tell them at the time).