EMT says he was suspended without pay for trying to save choking girl

[Team Sergeant]

It's just becoming more insane out there. Qwasi Reid, you're a hero and I thank you for trying!





EMT says he was suspended without pay for trying to save choking girl

By Edmund DeMarche
·Published October 28, 2015
·FoxNews.com

A heroic New York EMT who tried in vain last week to save a 7-year-old school girl choking on her lunch said he was suspended because it is against company policy to make a stop without being called.

Qwasi Reid, who works for Assist Ambulance, was transporting a nursing home patient last Wednesday with his partner when he said they were flagged down at a red light by a frantic man who told them that a student was choking. Reid said his partner, who was not reprimanded by the company, told the man they already had a patient and there was nothing they could do.

Reid, who has driven ambulances for four years, said he knew the choking girl took a priority over the transport, and against his partner's urging, jumped out of the ambulance's back door and administered first aid to the girl, who he said had already turned blue. No one at the school was rendering first aid, he said.

"I don't regret it," Reid, who said he is suspended without pay, told FoxNews.com. "I'd do it again. If I know there's a child choking, I'm going to do my best to help her."


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/28.../?intcmp=hpbt2

[Streck-Fu]

I read about that yesterday. It seems that no one at the school was willing to help at all and no one on staff knew how to recognize choking or perform basic first aide. That girl was failed a large number of people and if the only one willing to help gets suspended/fired for it.......

[Sohei]

Nothing like being suspended from your job for trying to show some "humanity" and common decency in 2015.

Good on you for doing what needed to be done regardless of the sheep bleating around you!

[mark46th]

Isn't there a Good Samaritan law that he could defend himself with?

[Sohei]

Originally Posted by mark46th

Isn't there a Good Samaritan law that he could defend himself with?

Usually covers you from civil liability from the victim (patient) and not from a deemed violation of your company's policies.

[Badger52]

NY should revoke that company's operating certificate. Not that they need actual grounds contained in their own Good Samaritan Law; it is, after all, New Yawk.

[x SF med]

How does a school operate without any teachers/aides knowing basic first aid, CPR and Heimlich procedeures; AND having CURRENT Certs?

To volunteer at the USO, I had to have all of that and a food handler's license...

Qwasi Reid, you are a good man, and subscribed to the creed Primum non Nocere. Screw your company, they're idiots.

[Five-O]

I hope I am missing something here. There has to be more to the story...if not Mr Reid should seek a labor attorney sue his company and seek other employment. In the mean time, his fellow employees should pass the hat to make up for his missed wages.

[DanHeller88]

Originally Posted by x SF med

How does a school operate without any teachers/aides knowing basic first aid, CPR and Heimlich procedeures; AND having CURRENT Certs?

To volunteer at the USO, I had to have all of that and a food handler's license...

Qwasi Reid, you are a good man, and subscribed to the creed Primum non Nocere. Screw your company, they're idiots.

Hell, I work in the security field and at a gym and I MANDATORY must keep an up to date CPR certification.