Report: New Protocol in Chicago After Medics Failed to Treat Gunshot Victim

The Chicago Fire Department has enacted new protocols after paramedics failed to treat a gunshot victim for an hour as he lay dying in the street last year, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Although an investigation into that incident is not complete, the department has reportedly changed the way paramedics assess shooting victims and anyone else injured. All patients are now placed on a heart monitors to check for signs of life, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford told reporters. The monitors will be placed on all patients, unless they have suffered extreme trauma. The new procedure is "for anybody that we treat, no matter what it looks like, except in cases like decapitation," Langford said. "The monitor checks for cardiac activity and other electrical impulses generated in a living person. The monitor can go beyond what most people understand as simple flatline." Shortly after the 2018 shooting, the fire department said paramedics may have mistaken the victim for dead in the triage process. On June 18, 2019, Erin Carey, 17, was shot and injured. He initially survived the shooting but was placed under a white sheet by paramedics. Shortly after the shooting, TV cameras captured Carey moving under the sheet for at least 15 minutes before a medic uncovered him and began CPR. Read the full report HERE.
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Trauma News Patient Care Source Type: news