Terri Harber
Moscow-Pullman Daily News
MOSCOW, Idaho — A trainer of emergency medical technicians for the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department has been cleared of wrongdoing after a department investigation.
In an anonymous email, a person accused Moscow EMT Bill Brocklesby of behaving recklessly while leading a recent training session.
Brocklesby had continued with his EMT duties but didn’t provide any instruction this week, while the department looked into the matter.
Local fire officials interviewed or took written statements from people in the class and determined “all responses were consistent in their description of the events in question,” according to the report sent out detailing the conclusions of the department’s investigation.
Emergency Medical Services Chief David Reynolds and Moscow Fire Chief Ed Button announced Monday there would be an investigation after the email was sent Sunday to Moscow city and other government officials, including Idaho Emergency Medical Services, the Daily News and Lewiston Tribune.
The email accused Brocklesby of endangering a student by hooking them up to a “live,” automated external defibrillator. The EMT was also accused of having “made a student accept a nasal airway” and reportedly stated “he was going to sedate one of the students with a paramedic drug “
Use of the nasopharyngeal airway was demonstrated on a volunteer, not someone who was “made to accept” the device, Reynolds said. “It’s a common training practice.”
Airways are placed in someone’s nose (another type can go inside a person’s mouth) to hold down their tongue so they can breathe without obstruction, he said.
Also according to the report, “no sedatives were administered.” There was a question about sedatives asked by a student that Brocklesby said he would pose to the course coordinator.
The student helping Brocklesby show how to use the defibrillator wasn’t in peril because the machine was at the lowest possible energy level and “appropriate protective measures were taken.” The EMS supervising physician also “concluded that the volunteer wasn’t placed at risk,” the report stated.
Still, a change in how the department demonstrates operation of the defibrillator will occur, the department stated.
From now on, instructors will use a computer to generate heart rhythms to the defibrillator monitor instead of a person providing the rhythm. Many of the other machine functions require a person to be hooked up to properly demonstrate its operations, Reynolds said.
“It’s an added precaution to improve the margin of safety,” Reynolds said.
Tom Shanahan, public information director for Idaho Emergency Medical Services, Department of Health and Welfare, said the state has opened its own investigation and a representative was involved with the interviews done by local fire personnel on Tuesday with people in the class.
Twenty percent of the complaints the state receives about emergency operations across Idaho are anonymous, Shanahan said.
A state finding won’t be made public unless the subject’s license or certification is affected, Shanahan added.
Now that he’s been cleared, Brocklesby will instruct a class tonight, Reynolds said Thursday.