The State of New York just issued a drastic new guideline that has left first responders outraged:
NY POST – New York state just issued a drastic new guideline urging emergency services workers not to bother trying to revive anyone without a pulse when they get to a scene, amid an overload of coronavirus patients.
While paramedics were previously told to spend up to 20 minutes trying to revive people found in cardiac arrest, the change is “necessary during the COVID-19 response to protect the health and safety of EMS providers by limiting their exposure, conserve resources, and ensure optimal use of equipment to save the greatest number of lives,’’ according to a state Health Department memo issued last week.
First responders were outraged over the move.
“They’re not giving people a second chance to live anymore,’’ Oren Barzilay, head of the city union whose members include uniformed EMTs and paramedics, fumed of state officials.
“Our job is to bring patients back to life. This guideline takes that away from us,” he said.
“Now you don’t get 20 minutes of CPR if you have no rhythm,” a veteran FDNY Emergency Medical Services worker told The Post, referring to cardiac-arrest patients who have no heartbeat when paramedics arrive. “They simply let you die.”
The paramedic acknowledged that only about three or four out of every 100 patients with no pulse — “a small percentage” — are actually brought back to life through CPR and other aggressive intervention such as drugs and hospitalization.
But “for those three or four people, it’s a big deal,” the worker said.
As a former EMT this surprises me. Maybe it’s different now, but ages ago when I was in the field most first responder teams were equipped with a bag valve mask and oxygen tanks. It’s only when you don’t have those items that you do CPR directly mouth to mouth with the patient, and even then first responders normally carry protective masks.
It is important to protect first responders as they are few and far between compared to the population at large. But I would be upset about this directive too. When you are faced with a resuscitation situation and you believe it’s possible to save someone, now you are leaving them no hope of resuscitation? Sorry, but I don’t want that on my conscience. I’d rather get the coronavirus knowing I did the right thing trying to save someone instead of leaving them with no hope.
I understand that when someone’s heart stops beating and they stop breathing they are technically dead. It’s called “clinical death”. But there’s around six minutes before the brain dies and biological death occurs, and those six minutes are crucial in resuscitating a person. If I’m in the field and someone needs resuscitation, I’m going to do everything I can to protect myself. But I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna stand there and watch someone die when I believe I could save them.