Ambulance Driver Files A Day in the Life | Kelly Grayson
In the latest episode of Inside EMS, co-host Chris Cebollero and I discuss the latest EMS news and events, and debate the recent New York grand jury decision not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD cop who applied a choke hold in subduing Eric Garner, who subsequently died in the hospital.
On the heels of the Ferguson riots, the outcome of the Eric Garner decision is very troubling indeed. Chris wonders if police officers are – wrongly – held to a lower standard by the grand jury, while my view tends to be somewhat more moderate.
Unlike the eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence that indicated that Michael Brown was the aggressor in Ferguson, Eric Garner was not attacking anyone. And while he is ultimately responsible for precipitating the chain of events that led to his death – he knew he was breaking the law, had been cited for the same offense before, and chose to resist arrest – it is hard to justify a choke hold that every NYPD officer knows is dangerous and against long-standing department policy.
My issue is more the lack of urgency displayed by the responding EMTs to a man was clearly in extremis, and the assertion by many – including a number of medical professionals who should know better – that just because Garner was gasping “I can’t breathe,” then by default he could breathe.
The ability to move enough air past the vocal cords to phonate merely demonstrates that the airway is not blocked. It does not mean that the patient can breathe adequately, and I can think of dozens of patients who have said those very words to me, who soon thereafter (often at my hands) wound up intubated and on a ventilator as proof that just because you can say it, doesn’t mean you can do it.
