Wednesday, April 21, 2010

** Kansas governor signs new EMS terms into law

** Arkansas EMS crew cleared after declaring live patient dead

UNITED STATES NEWS

** EMS workers in Kansas will soon be going by different names, now that the governor has signed several prehospital amendments into law. The InfoZine (April 20) said Mark Parkinson put pen to paper yesterday to change the name of an emergency medical technician – intermediate to an advanced emergency medical technician. First responders likewise will now be known as emergency medical responders, while mobile intensive care technicians will simply be called paramedics. Once the bill is published into the Kansas Statute Book, the new terms will come into use.

** Two Arkansas paramedics have apparently been cleared of any wrongdoing in a March 26 case in which they declared a live patient dead. That is the word from the Associated Press (April 20) which said an internal investigation by Metropolitan EMS officials in Little Rock found that the medics followed all appropriate protocols. According to the newspaper, the prehospital pair were not the only individuals to think Pamela Harper, 52, had expired. A second EMS crew, as well as an emergency room doctor both concurred she was no longer living. It was only when the coroner saw Harper breathe that she was given care by a third set of medics. Harper, however, died a short time later in hospital.