Patients should feel safe when they are being treated by medics. In addition to this, medics should believe the patient unless they monitor their condition and discover something else. Unfortunately, a woman in California named Brittany didn’t receive the right treatment while she was in the back of the ambulance. She was having a seizure, and for medical purposes, she always films her seizures. This time, she caught a psycho medic abusing his authority. He didn’t believe that she was having a seizure, and that was enough for him to start threatening her with using emergency medical devices. While the video only has audio in it, it was horrifying to listen to.
In the video of the California medic, he started calling out Brittany and asking her what happened. How could she respond while having a seizure? He then told her “I’m going to put an IO in you.” If you don’t know, an IO is an intraosseous line that is basically a needle that gets inserted directly into the bone marrow. It is quite painful and threatening a patient with it is insane. What was more insane was how the medic made drilling sounds to scare her and make her believe that he was going to use the IO. In addition to this being psychologically harmful, inserting an IO without medical necessity or consent could be considered assault.
The California medic then demanded that she wake up. That was when his coworker told him to put an OPA in her which is an airway device. People shouldn’t use it during an active seizure. The psycho medic then said out loud “I wonder if it’s against the law to take a bag and squirt it up her nose.” Absolutely horrifying. The threats continued. He told her, “Say hi to us,” or she would get an OPA to an NPA, which is another airway device. “If you’re unable to control your own airway, we’re gonna control it for you,” he continued. He asked her to say hi again and then threatened that he was going to “drill her.” Once again, he made a drilling sound.
The patient clarified by the end of the video that she was finally starting to wake up. That was when he told her “thank you” as if she was actually faking her seizure and finally listened to him. He then asked her, “Are you just not gonna talk? Say hi.” This is medical abuse. After sharing the video, viewers encouraged Brittany to take legal action. This is why she started a GoFundMe to be able to afford a lawyer along with her medical fees. Hopefully, the video she recorded would help her hold the medic accountable.
People Reacting to the Psycho California Medic’s Threats
Everything the California medic said to Brittany shocked people. This is why many asked her to sue them including one who asked, “Please tell me you are suing them?!” When some tried to say that what the medic did wasn’t illegal, one person told them, “hey so making threats to assault someone/ preforming medical procedures that are not necessary in an active medical crisis isnt legal she needs to press charges on this pos and you need to never give advice again.” Someone else commented on how terrifying the situation was as they said, “‘I’m gonna put an IO in your leg’ I get those are used as real medical equipment but the way he said it was scary like he wanted to hurt you.” He definitely sounded sinister.
More comments mentioned that what the California medic did was assault, as one person said, “This, to me, crosses the line into ASSAULT. They posed a THREAT of bodily harm if she did not comply to their wishes and then DID IT‼ CHARGES‼!” Even paramedics commented on how wrong this was. “I’m a paramedic… I’ve seen and dealt with people faking seizures. I would NEVER think that this is okay. Call the service and report them,” one paramedic wrote. Another one said, “its not our job to prove they’re faking. Thats for the doc to decide. Our job is to stabilize and transport.” Everything here was unprofessional.
