Larry Neumann

Mulberry

87

Supporters

On Wednesday the 14th of May, 2014, my fiancee, Nancy Gale Smith was involved in a serious multi-car accident. I witnessed the tragic event. I was at our car in less than a minute. While she was not responsive to my voice, I observed her chest rising and falling. Two other men also checked and found a pulse. She had a pulse for approximately 3 minutes while I was on the phone with 911. I informed the 911 operator that the doors were jammed and she was not breathing. When EMS arrived, they did not drive up to the only vehicle with serious damage, instead they stopped 50 to 75 yards up the road. I ran towards them pleading for help. They responded in a casual manner. They did not carry any medical equipment as they slowly walked to the car Nancy was trapped in. The only thing they did was check for a pulse and then call a signal seven (it's a code used to officially pronounce someone dead.) When I saw an EMS put a towel over Nancy's head, I asked them repeatedly to just remove her from the car and at least try to revive her. The lead paramedic answered every plea to help her with the same generic line, "she's suffered too much trauma." The only wound that I could see was a slight cut to her upper shoulder. I pleaded again and again for the paramedics to just try. Again and again they refused. I have since tried to determine what trauma Nancy could have suffered that was so obvious to the paramedics, buy county officials will not cooperate. We are seeking petitions to give to proper authorities so that the response of this accident can be investigated and the lead paramedic be called upon to answer specifically why he refused to offer any medical aid to Nancy Gale Smith. We also must know how many other car accident victims have been refused aid due to such a vague and incompetent EMS response protocol. If these serious protocol errors are not investigated and justice is not rendered, the next time it could be your wife, husband, daughter, or other loved one that lies helpless in a car while Polk County Rescue members refuse to help and never have to answer for their inaction. We are calling on elected officials to change the laws/protocols in regards to how paramedics and firefighters respond to car accidents. In the event of a car accident where a person(s) is trapped in the vehicle and their heart has stopped, then paramedics and/or firefighters MUST remove the person(s) from the vehicle and use reasonable emergency medical care procedures to try to save them. Only when extreme penetrating trauma exist (body cut in half, skull crushed in, severed head, or the car is engulfed in flames) may paramedics and/or firefighters pronounce the person(s) dead without removing them from the vehicle.