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Legal Lesson of the Month: Taken Against His Will
EMS can be full of interesting and tricky legal scenarios. While you can’t have an attorney ride with you, it behooves providers to have at least some familiarity with the principles, precedents, and major issues of EMS law. To that end EMS World is pleased to offer the EMS Legal Lesson of the Month.
These cases are presented by prominent attorneys in the EMS field. This month’s comes from Larry Bennett, program chair for fire science and emergency management at the University of Cincinnati. Bennett’s department publishes a monthly Fire & EMS and Safety Law newsletter; subscribe to that by e-mailing Lawrence.bennett@uc.edu or read the latest edition here. Find this case and more in his section on EMS cases.
Case: El-Fatih P. Nowell v. Tri-Med Ambulance
Decided: January 2019
Verdict: U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik denied Tri-Med’s motion for summary judgments on most allegations of “involuntary detention and transport to a medical facility.”
Facts: On June 18, 2015, a coworker found Nowell disoriented and unsteady. He told a supervisor he was having chest pains and pain in his right leg/foot, but declined her offer to call an ambulance, as he did not think his symptoms were serious and he lacked medical insurance. The supervisor persisted, and Nowell finally acquiesced.
The Kent (Wash.) Fire Department responded, and crew leader David White was concerned. Nowell did not recall being in the bathroom, his symptoms were consistent with a heart attack, and he was slow and repetitive in responding to questions. However, his vital signs and EKG were fine, and he promised to follow up with his physician about the episode.
White initially concluded no further medical care was needed, but then the supervisor “caught Mr. White’s attention and indicated that Mr. Nowell was not quite right.” With this new information, White changed his mind and decided Nowell should be seen by a doctor immediately. Lacking insurance, Nowell did not want to go by ambulance, but was unable to reach his own doctor to reassure the fire crew. White became impatient as time passed.
Two Tri-Med employees arrived with a gurney. They and two firefighters pushed Nowell down onto it; then when he tried to walk away, five responders tackled him and strapped him to it. Apparently realizing only then that they’d initiated an involuntary commitment, firefighters called for a police officer. Kent PD officer John Dorff arrived and spoke with White and Nowell’s coworkers, but Nowell, by now no longer trusting the process, refused to engage. Dorff signed off on the involuntary commitment.
They took Nowell to the hospital in restraints. There a doctor found nothing wrong and sent him home with his wife. He sued two years later, claiming assault and battery, false imprisonment, negligence, unlawful seizure, and use of excessive force. The defendants said he’d intended to drive himself home, endangering others, and that he’d “attacked them” by trying to escape.
The judge denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.
Key quote: “Defendants’ statements of the facts are starkly skewed in their favor, with unfavorable testimony dismissed as ‘perceptions [that] are not material.’”
Legal lesson: When EMS faces a difficult decision concerning forcible transport, consider first calling the hospital emergency department and getting medical clearance to transport.
