AMR returns (dead) man's body to door

[TuxEMS]

Found an update to the story that it looks like it may have been a state law not to take the man's body by ambulance.


Still not knowing the full story of both sides I can think of other ways to handle it. Personally if a Dr. really told the EMTs to do that (and the family sues AMR) then the Dr. better be in court too.

That is a screwed up law... Do they not transport bodies to the morgue like we do on the private I work for??

[CACBAND]

I agree it's a messed up law. I think that must be about not transport already dead people (like from the hospital to the morgue) (I hope).
What I want to know is what happens if the guy dies on a 100+ mile interfaculty transport, then what?

[wholesalestunna]

I could see that hurting their public relations a little bit bringing the body back.

Around here when we have a body, EMS stays on scene to contact the doctor to see if they will sign the death certificate. If the doctor agrees then ems leaves and the body stays at that location for the family to call a funeral home.

[AnthonyM83]

I think people are trying to justify what happened through technicalities. If you have a cardiac arrest, you work him up until you arrive at the hospital or call him on-scene where you found him (not where you put him after death).

If resuscitation is stopped during transport, you either continue to the ER or you can be all technical about it and pull over where you are and wait for the coroner.

But you do not move the dead body back to the family's home. That's where common sense comes in (unless there was some kind of very unique circumstance that wasn't mentioned).

I'm sure the law on no-transport of dead bodies, applied to legal death, as when you give a time of death...not clinically dead as when you start CPR.

[sam911]

If the base doc ordered this then its legal, but it's bad form if the family is not ok with it. My question is this: Where did he die? If he was a ressuss that crumped enrout then we carry on to the ER. I never put a body inside the bus unless its a public scene or a gsw with a unruly crowd etc. I would attempt to judge the family's mental state to determine if I can guide them through the process of calling the funeral home and have them get an ETA for the ME. Its these types of sensitive scenes were you can bring a touch of class that elevates this profession to an art. If the family is freaking out then call the base back and say " Hey doc, I know the policy on transporting bodies but I need your help here, I can't leave the body here because..." Pull strings for a family in thier darkest hour and you'll feel a little less crappy about your job for a few hours. Plus your just going to get another call anyway! I think Priests should hold a class for medics so we can use some of thier best material on scenes like this.

Maybe the base md told them to shut up and leave the body, while multiple cpr's in progress "medic to follow" were going out on the air. Maybe one family member said to bring the body into the home and then another family member arrived later and heard that the medics dragged dad back into the house and went crazy and called the media. maybe they were idiot rookies who tubed the stomach and didn't want to bring the screwup into the er? God only knows.