State by State: November 2020

KENTUCKY: Officer Indicted in Taylor Killing; Family Gets $12M

A county grand jury indicted one of three Louisville police officers involved in the fatal March 13 shooting of 26-year-old former EMT Breonna Taylor. Former detective Brett Hankison was indicted in September on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and detective Myles Cosgrove were not indicted. The previous week Mayor Greg Fischer announced the city had agreed to a $12 million settlement with Taylor’s family that includes more than a dozen police reforms. Taylor, 26, was shot and killed by city officers during a raid on her apartment in March, leading to protests across the country. 

NEW YORK: Feds Drain Nearly $4M From WTC Healthcare Program 

The Trump administration acknowledged it stripped millions of dollars from the New York City fire department fund that pays healthcare bills for 9/11 survivors and said it would try to stop. The New York Daily News reported the Treasury Department had siphoned nearly $4 million from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program over the past four years. The Treasury Department explained the actions as “offsets” against various city entities with Medicare secondary payer debt. “It’s just absolutely disgraceful,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). 

TEXAS: EMS Community Mourns Passing of Craig Manifold

Prominent emergency physician Craig Manifold, DO, FACEP, FAAEM, FAEMS, who served as medical director for the NAEMT, a member of the “Eagles” coalition, and in multiple other EMS capacities, died unexpectedly in September, the NAEMT announced. The organization’s medical director since 2017, Manifold had also served on the EMS World editorial advisory board since 2014. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Health Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.

WASHINGTON: Data: King Co. Efforts Kept Providers Safe From COVID

New procedures implemented in King County, Wash., early in the COVID-19 pandemic helped protect EMS personnel, new research confirms. Measures including use of masks, protective eyewear, gloves, and gowns with patients with respiratory illness, fever, and travel history reduced providers’ risk of infection and days quarantined. Of 988 EMS encounters with COVID-infected patients during the study period, only three providers subsequently tested positive, and even those cases could not be definitively attributed to patient exposures.