This is not a new EMS incident, it actually goes back to 2019. The article I am linking to is from December 2021. Well, the main article I am linking to is from 2021. There are other articles as well.

He is the link from EMS1 that covers much of the story of that fateful days events,

State board cites 7 Kan. responders for failing to transport patient to hospital

This is a fairly long article, but it’s well worth reading.

The Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services has proposed disciplining seven Wichita-area emergency responders for failing to take a suicide victim to a hospital five minutes away, even though he had a pulse and labored breathing.

Instead, the man — who had shot himself in the head — was covered with a white sheet and taken to hospice where he died more than 10 1/2 hours after the shooting.

Ahh, if it was only that simple. They didn’t immediately take him to hospice. Actually they NEVER should have taken him anywhere but an Emergency Department.

In my career, especially at the beginning, we often transported patients that we knew had no chance of survival. It was just the way of the world even though we didn’t like doing it and the hospitals didn’t like us having to do it. That finally started to change in the late 1980s in my system and continues to evolve even though I am long (eleven years now) retired.

The patient was left on the floor of his downtown Wichita apartment for five hours. At times, he appeared to be in pain, “moaning loudly,” the order says.

The “Bring Out Your Dead” scene in Month Python and The Holy Grail was supposed to be comedy, not a how to film.

A review by the Sedgwick County Medical Society found the patient was handled properly. Sedgwick County and Wichita government agencies have hired an attorney to defend their employees’ conduct.

On what planet is it proper to leave a suffering person on the floor for five hours?

The voice of sanity is heard,

Article found here, State board asks for probe of EMS leader after man left to die in Wichita apartment

But the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services, which licenses EMTs and paramedics across the state, says the patient was not given proper care. If a patient is breathing or has a heart beat, EMS protocol is to transport the person to an emergency room.

 

Well, yeah. Maybe, just maybe, the Sedgewick County Medical Society is trying to cover for a member. Believe me, if they could find a way to toss the EMS providers under the ambulance to protect Gallagher, they would do it.

Think it can’t get worse? Think again,

Two months after the call, Sedgwick County consolidated its EMS services and the Office of the Medical Director, placing Gallagher, a physician, as the top official in the county’s EMS system.

Two months after this debacle, Gallagher was promoted to EMS director.

I’ll stop quoting parts of the article as the reader might think I’m making this up or misquoting what the article says. I’m not.

Two years later, Gallagher was removed as medical director.

Sedgwick County removes EMS director Dr. John Gallagher

I had some bad bosses over the years, but this one takes the cake.

Eventually the County paid Dr. Gallagher to go away. We used to call this “addition by subtraction” at work.

EMS Director Dr. John Gallagher resigns; Sedgwick County to pay him $85,000

Money well spent I say.

There is no news article about what happened to the seven providers that the state cited. The only hint is that an eighth provider, a supervisor, was also being charged with something.

Whatever their fates, this was an EMS failure at all levels from field provider to medical director.

It’s definitely not the way to do EMS.

I know that the featured image is more than a bit harsh, but there is plenty of fail here to go around.