Posted on 01/30/2014 9:15:18 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A 77-year-old man died after collapsing across the street from a fire station, where his daughter had asked for immediate assistance and was instead rebuffed by a firefighter who told her he couldn’t help unless dispatch instructed him to intervene.
The man, Medric Cecil Mills, collapsed near the Engine 26 fire station in the Brookland area of Washington, D.C. at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. His daughter, Marie Mills, went to the station to beg for immediate medical assistance. But the firefighter she encountered there told her that she had to first call 911 so that dispatch could instruct him to assist the dying man, according to The Washington Post.
“I even ran to the curb and said, ‘Are you going to help me or are you going to let my dad die?’” recalled Marie Mills in a statement to ABC 7.
Aid came too late for Mills, who passed away at the hospital, one hour later.
It is unclear how much of a delay was caused by the firefighter’s inaction. The ambulance that eventually came for Mills was first dispatched to a wrong address, 26 blocks away.
Edward C. Smith, president of the firefighters union, apologized on behalf of the department. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has promised that there will be an investigation into the matter.
“When you go to a fire station, you should expect that someone there is going to help you,” said Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesperson for the mayor, in a statement. “This gentleman was not served. We need to answer why he was not served.”
Ribeiro added that Mills should have been helped by the fire department, “protocol be damned.”
This is not black and white. This IMHO is the Gooberment making people afraid to be neighbors.
Dunno what it is like to be a Union first responder.
All I know is I got out due to liability as a volunteer.
That fire fighter needs to be shot.
Naw we just need MORE LAWS.
Can people still sue private citizen volunteers for cracking a few ribs while performing CPR?.
I dunno I quit ages ago.
I would say he was neglected to death. This is the Kitty Genovese syndrome only now it is the public safety officers who refuse to do anything.
Welcome to Utopia.
Only after he's fired!
I would suggest someone just use some defibrillator paddles on him and after his heart stops, he should be left to fend for himself.
Did either of them have medical training? If they had no training, they wouldn’t be much use. Same thing if the guy was an ALS patient and they were BLS trained. In either case, though, they should have made the 911 call for her.
Unfortunately if the fire fighter had rendered assistance without getting permission, he likely could have been fired.
Why should that matter? If they can’t handle the “emotional problems” they should find another line of work.
I suspect the fire fighter isn’t at fault. He might not have been allowed to act without authorization.
“Unfortunately if the fire fighter had rendered assistance without getting permission, he likely could have been fired.”
A position required due to decades worth of liability/wrongful death lawsuits, I’m sure.
“I gave up my good Samaritan first responder CPR gut credentials ages ago to to liability.”
Likewise. Now i’m just an “untrained” Good Samaritan, meaning I’m protected, at least in this state.
I hope that if I’m ever in that firefighter’s position my humanity will trump “authorization.”
22 years ago, I was running down the highway in Demming NM at 5 AM.
The road was desolate, and suddenly there were bodies in the road.
I got stopped in time, roused a trucker on the CB and got him to block the highway, he placed his rig against all traffic.
I had no idea how to raise the local authorities and asked him to do it.
He did. God Bless Him.
I took to the bodies in the road, knowing that his rig had me safe from being mowed over.
Some were alive, but minutes from death. It was very analytical and fast.
Then I heard moaning of in the dark.
I found the van out in the desert flipped over again and again. I cut them loose.
I have know idea what all I did, but when the professionals got there, They were frantic.
I said she’s dead, her heads snapped.
Her nose is in her cleavage there is no pulse.
They were trying to cut out the dead people while there were live people on scene.
I did my best. But it is difficult for first responders.
I decided long ago that I aint here to save yer life so you can sue me and ruin mine.
Have you ever done this stuff?
EMTs have a high burn out rate.
There are so many facts we don’t have, that any assumptions about this incident are just that... assumptions. First, are all D.C. stations staffed with firefighter/paramedics? Second, who provides paramedic service in D.C.? Third, who’s the ambulance provider in D.C. Fourth, was the condition of the patient worsened by the extra minute it took for someone to call 911? (Note he died an hour later in hospital) Fifth, did the woman actually correctly understand what she’d been told?
The story’s designed to gin up outrage, and getting the response it intended to get... and some of that might be justified once the actual facts are known... but they aren’t at the moment.
Incidentally, my local unionized fire department has at least one paramedic on every rig, and they routinely handle still alarm calls by grabbing the med bag and hoofing it down the street while the apparatus driver notifies dispatch, then brings down the engine to join them. Indifference to the level of negligence is something I’ve never seen in fifty-plus years of contact with the fire service. I did watch one crew “accidentally” lose control of a hose that was pointed in the direction of a particularly obnoxious, agenda-driven reporter though.
Nope. I’ve never flown an airliner either but I want somebody in the flight cabin who can put the stress aside and fly the plane, especially when an emergency arises.
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