WOAI
SAN ANTONIO — It was a life or death situation. Paramedics responded to an emergency call on the east side. And while they initially started working on the man, they stopped after reading his will.
Losing a loved one is never easy. But Terry Read says his father, Samuel, might have made it if paramedics had just kept working on him. Since that day, he’s been fighting to make sure this never happens to another family.
“The first thing the lead paramedic did was he asked for the living will,” Read remembers. “And while they were treating him, he walked into the other room and talked on the phone with someone.”
Terry Read said he showed up to his parents home, back in November of 2008, and watched paramedics work on his dad. But in the heat of the moment, he didn’t understand why his father’s will was being read.
“He came out a few minutes later and said stop. And I told him not to stop. And he talked about it being against the law for him to continue,” Read told us.
Since paramedics wouldn’t continue, Terry tried to save his father.
“I was going to go back to do resuscitation and they actually grabbed a hold of me and physically, all six of them, physically restrained me from getting to my father,” he said.
San Antonio’s Fire Department paramedics responded to Sam Read back in 2008.
“Is it standard practice, is it normal, for paramedics to try and read over a living will,” News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooter Mireya Villarreal asked.
Chief Yvette Grenato answered, “Not necessarily. It depends on the circumstances.”
Chief Grenato says paramedics on scene reviewed Sam Read’s living will with a medical expert over the phone; then decided to stop treatment. The state has reviewed this case and cleared the department of any wrong doing. Still, they’ve been working with the Read family to change the way paramedic crews interact with patients and their families.
Villarreal questioned Chief Grenato about the way things were done that day, “Could things have been done differently to be more compassionate to that family?”
“Absolutely,” Grenato noted.
But that answer wasn’t enough for Terry Read. He wanted to do more. And for the last two years he’s been working with State Representative Ruth McClendon to keep this from happening to anyone else.
“EMS personnel do not have the responsibility or the training or the knowledge to interpret legal documents,” Representative McClendon told us.
She sponsored House Bill 577, which was passed during this legislative session. It makes it very clear, a first responders’ first priority is to treat a patient.
“Emergency responders, paramedics, are not in the business of interpreting living wills. They’re in the business of doing what they’re trained to do, which is to administer emergency medical treatment,” Terry Read explained.
Reprinted with permission from WOAI.