Had a 16 year old decide she didnt wanna go where she needed to be, so attempted to bail out the back, on the freeway :eek: It all ended well, rather entertaining run though. Ever had a patient bail??

Ed

Had a 16 year old decide she didnt wanna go where she needed to be, so attempted to bail out the back, on the freeway :eek: It all ended well, rather entertaining run though. Ever had a patient bail??

Ed
Yep, had a psych patient demand to be released. We had to let him go (we drove him to a friend's house though).

He was depressed and signed a voluntary admission to a psych hospital. We were transporting him there when he decided he didn't want to go. The physician had signed a "1013 form," which basically makes his treatment involuntary. The problem? As an EMT or paramedic in Georgia, I can't legally enforce that. Only a police officer can. We called for police, but of course they were busy. So we had to let him go.

I caught crap from the physician for that, but my supervisor backed me up. In fact, we had sent a memo to the hospital that we couldn't hold 1013 patients against their will. If they demanded to be released, we would have to release them.

I think Georgia has passed a law that allows EMT's and paramedics to detain people with psychiatric illnesses, but a 1013 specifically states that a law enforcement officer must escort the patient to the psych hospital.

Does kicking them out count?

Does kicking them out count?
I wouldn't put it past you PR... :laugh:

I almost had a guy bail out, but fortunately we had figured he might try just that and transported with a police officer. We were able to talk him into continuing to the hospital.

Closest I've gotten is a psych pt. running out of a nursing home as we were arriving to pick him up to take him out of the hospital. What was sad (but expected) was how slow the staff was to chase after him. When we left they still didn't get him.

One of the old timers at my service had a guy JUMP onto the ambulance from a bridge over an interstate. totalled the ambulance and killed the patient.

suicide.........ugly.

glad i wasn't there to clean that up.

later

God, that's awful. My husband had someone toss a large pumpkin off an interstate bridge onto the rig while he was driving - he thought that was traumatic! I can't imagine getting hit by a person jumping. When you say it killed the patient do just mean the guy that jumped or did it also kill the patient they were transporting?

nope, just killed the guy jumping. they weren't transporting a patient.

he tore off the lightbar and crushed the mod.

glad it wasn't me.

later

I'm down with the throwing them out idea. Can that be considered therapeutic?

45 mph, amazingly minor injuries.. completed transport w/o further problems ;)