Download this quick clip on iTunes, SoundCloud or via RSS feed
In this week’s Quick Clip, co-hosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson discuss six responders who were suspended pending an investigation after stopping resuscitation efforts on a woman at a Maplewood, Minn. nursing home.
The woman’s husband asked medics to stop life saving efforts and they complied without seeing a do not resuscitate order.
“I would hate to be put into that position, but I’m not quite sure I would have handled it that way,” Grayson said.
Cebollero agreed, saying EMTs operate under a medical director’s protocols and and don’t have a right to say ‘I will respect your wishes.’
“We live by the code that we need to see the DNR,” Cebollero said.
He said the medics’ hearts were in the right place by wanting to follow the family’s wishes, but EMS providers don’t have the right to make that decision.
They also questioned the merit of an internal investigation, saying it shouldn’t be made into a criminal matter, and called it a “low class move” by the nursing home to notify police.
