Hennepin County EMS Did Not Follow County-Mandated EMS Protocols for Cardiac Arrest
-Emergency Medical Services Protocols are established procedures that must be followed for a given medical emergency.
-If protocols are not followed, the organization is held accountable: licenses can be revoked, workers fired, lawsuits typically are filed by patient/family.
I found the Hennepin County EMS Protocols and EMS clearly did not provide the required Basic Life Support for cardiac arrest for George Floyd:
If the patient is in cardiac arrest upon arrival of the ambulance crew, institute or continue Basic Life Support:
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CPR: compressions 100/min, breaths 8-10/min. Do not over ventilate.
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Impedance Threshold Device (ITD): Attach ITD to BVM and apply to patient within 30 seconds. You must maintain a tight, continuous, 2-handed face mask seal for the ITD to function properly. Use of ITD is service dependent.
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Reassess the patient’s rhythm after every 5 cycles (2 minutes) of CPR. Limit interruptions in CPR during pulse/rhythm checks to less than 10 seconds for airway insertion and/or administration of medications.
No Basic Life Support treatment means one of 2 things:
-He was breathing and had a pulse so they just needed to monitor and transport.
-He was in cardiac arrest and they did not follow protocol and should be investigated.
https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/business/work-with-hennepin-county/ems/als-protocols.pdf?la=en&hash=4DCAD9C684CFCCB5D0F280F3CB20DEF6A4D74A7A