More EMTs Behaving Badly – Bring out your dead

In the noted cinematic masterpiece “The Princess Bride” Billy Crystal’s character Miracle Max is asked to assess a dead body to see if he can perform a miracle and bring the body back to life. He pokes and prods rather randomly, then declares, “Lucky for you he’s only *mostly* dead.”

In the Monty Python film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” a man collecting bodies during the plague is met by a man trying to pass an obviously alive relative as dead. “There…he says he’s no dead…”

In the remarkably family friendly children’s film Django Unchained, Django is asked if he is positive a man riding away is the man he is searching for to be killed. After a rifle shot brings the man down Django casually says “I’m positive he dead.”

Sadly a version of these scenarios played out in Clearwater Florida recently where Paramedics declared a man dead then left the scene. A short while later a Sheriff Deputy who remained on scene for the medical examiner noticed the 65 year old “dead” man breathing. He was later treated and remains in the hospital as of the time of this recording. We also do an amazing recreation of the likely radio traffic between the Deputy and dispatch. How we haven’t been nominated for an award is beyond us. Something to ponder indeed.

This week we discuss:

• Is it really that hard to know if someone is alive? What about using a mirror?
• What criteria must be followed to declare someone dead
• What are the wrong things to say when making the notification
• How did MC even function with 3mbps internet? That isn’t a typo. 3.

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