State by State: September 2019

MASSACHUSETTS: Boston EMTs Rally for Colleague Stabbed on Duty

Dozens of Boston medics and EMTs attended the arraignment of Julie Tejeda, 31, a patient who stabbed their colleague seven times while being transported to Massachusetts General Hospital July 10. “It was important to be here today for her because she couldn’t be here,” said Boston EMS Chief Jim Hooley of the victim, as reported in the Boston Herald. “She couldn’t stand here to face someone who perpetrated this on her.” “These EMTs did not deserve this,” Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross said during the press conference. “Every day they go out and they help people, they save lives.”

WASHINGTON: Fire Dept. Faces Fourth Lawsuit in Intubation Case

A fourth claim has been filed against the city of Bellingham for an incident in which the body of a man who died in the back of a paramedic unit while on the way to the hospital was used by fire department personnel for medical training. The city already has paid $75,000 each to two adult children of Bradley Ginn Sr., and is facing a $15 million claim filed by Ginn’s widow, according to the city attorney’s office. Now his brother, Robert Fox, who lives in California, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city alleging “tortuous interference with a corpse” following the 2018 incident.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: House Bill Includes Dispatchers in Public Safety

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill July 15 to change the federal government’s occupational classification of 9-1-1 professionals and recognize them as an essential part of the public safety community. The “9-1-1 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act” (9-1-1 SAVES Act, H.R. 1629) would direct the White House Office of Management and Budget to reclassify 9-1-1 telecommunicators and dispatchers in the federal government’s Standard Occupational Classification System. The legislation now moves to the Senate. 

NEVADA: LVPD Releases Report on Route 91 Harvest Shooting

The Las Vegas Police Department issued a report July 10 detailing lessons learned from the 2017 mass shooting that left 58 people dead and over 800 injured. A gunman set himself up on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and let loose more than 1,000 rounds into a 22,000-strong crowd at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. The Las Vegas Police Department conducted 650 interviews to compile the 158-page report that analyzes the events of that day and the aftermath. Investigators also examined 500 officer reports, 4,900 dispatch calls, and upward of 3,000 videos from body camera footage.