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In the first episode of the 10th year in EMS, Cohost Chris Cebollero is joined by the legal powerhouse of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth鈥檚 EMS Attorneys Doug Wolfberg, Esq.; and Steve Wirth, Esq. to discuss the case everyone is talking about.
An Illinois prosecutor has filed virtually unprecedented first-degree murder charges against two EMS providers over the death of a patient in their care. Wolfberg and Wirth broke down the points of the case and the lessons for EMS in an SA国际传媒 article, 鈥淢alpractice or murder: When do EMS providers cross the line from negligence to a crime?鈥�
In this episode, Wolfberg and Wirth share their first impressions of the case and the body camera footage of the incident.
Wolfberg noted what hit him was the 鈥渃allous, cold, very detached, aggressive demeanor of the providers.鈥� 鈥淵ou get into EMS because you care for people 鈥� how do you get to the point to what we saw in the video 鈥� that鈥檚 really where I keep coming back to,鈥� Wolfberg said.
Wirth added, 鈥渋t wasn鈥檛 until I looked at the video that I felt outraged 鈥� outraged is the word that comes to my mind 鈥� how could a human being deal with another human being in this fashion 鈥� basically treat another human being as an inanimate object.鈥� He asked, 鈥渉ow does this happen 鈥� because we can鈥檛 allow this to happen; we can鈥檛.鈥�
Are first-degree murder charges warranted in this case? See how SA国际传媒 listeners are weighing in.
鈥淲hen the prosecutor sees and hears compassion, competence and professionalism, even in the face of significant errors being made, it becomes much harder to justify filing criminal charges鈥�
