EMT Gets Prison After Defibrillator Prank Kills Co-Worker

If he had his EMT liscense, he was trained. If he was, indeed, not trained he should not have handled that piece of equipment.

SO SAD SOMEONE CAN BE THAT STUPID AND INMATURE, AND TO BE PLACED IN THE POSITION OF EMT. HE NEW BETTER, THE ANGENCY HE WORKED FOR HAD TO HAVE TRAINED HIM TO A DEGREE EVEN IF HE WAS STILL IN TRAINING.HE NEW RIGHT FROM WRONG. NOW LOOKAT ALL THE PEOPLE HURTING DUE TO HIS STUPIDITY.

I agree that he should not have been handling the defibrillator, especially since he had not been trained in it's use. He should very well have been trained about the dangers of it. Prior to shocking the victim, he had been warned not to touch her with the defibrillator. He disregarded that warning.

Rhoton was in the front passenger seat of the ambulance, and driver Michael Coleman was heading south on U.S. 19 in Lebanon when Coleman heard Rhoton tell Martin not to touch her "with that," Bush said. Coleman looked back to see Martin putting the paddles away.

But shortly afterward, Bush said, Coleman heard the "sound of a shock" and heard Rhoton yell: "Oh my God, Mike, he shocked me!" Seconds later she stiffened and then went limp. Coleman frantically tried to hold her slumping body up while driving and calling the private ambulance company's office.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet...=1137833607005

I do believe at least What defibrillators do is covered in emt classes. It is not like he was a new kid straight off the street with no education or training. emts have to take an exam.

I dont think a year is enough time in prison for him. The woman wont come back to life in a year.

Please. How can you watch TV and NOT know what a defibrillator DOES? How can you take a basic EMT class and NOT have an INKLING of it? I refuse to believe that a basic EMT class does not say, "This is a defibrillator. You will not be trained on this in this course, but they deliver X amount of joules of electricity per shock and are NOT A TOY." I can remember watching "Trapper John, MD" as a kid and I KNEW that stuff was dangerous even if I had no clue as to what it actually DID.

Not trying to flame you, but if someone is that stupid, I hope to heaven they're not riding in the back of the next ambulance I have to call. No sympathy here - except I'm sorry he's that dense.

My mother, at 71, has never been trained on or even touched a gun in her life. But that doesn't mean she doesn't know they can be used to kill people!

I'm sure he was told it wasn't a toy. I just seriously doubt he knew it could kill someone. Trust me, plenty of people who watch er wouldn't know that either. (didn't Carter get shocked once and he was fine?). If he knew it could kill someone I doubt he would have done it. There was nothing in this story to suggest he intentionally tried to kill his coworker. He just did something unbelievably stupid. I'll leave it at that.

Unbelievable!!!!! How could anyone be so stupid?

What I can't believe is that when she pointed out not to touch her he did it anyway. Not to mention why were the things on and jouled up? We had to hit a button and set the joules for it to work. Obviously it was not an AED or it would have traced her and wouldn't have sent anything, so it was definitely his doing. MORON!!

I have to agree. He may have had remorse, but that punishment wasn't enough. Lots of lives were changed forever because of something he thought would be funny. My children would have had more sense than that. GEEZ!!

Plus, why didn't the other paramedic STOP, call for help and try to stablize her instead of holding up a limp body and driving. They obviously had all kinds of equipment at hand. (EKG, IV supplies, meds, etc) Then when help arrived, kicking that guy's butt.

I was wondering the same thing. It doesn't make sense to waste precious time driving. The only thing I can think is maybe the driver wasn't a paramedic?