Posted on 12/14/2014 6:00:40 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
Chippewa Falls, WI — Dashcam video has been released that shows the disturbing last moments of a man’s life as he’s detained by a Chippewa Falls police officer on the way to the hospital.
29-year-old Casey Kressin died after suffering a severe asthma attack when the vehicle that was rushing him to the hospital was pulled over by a Chippewa Falls police officer.
After they were stopped, Kressin’s girlfriend immediately starts to beg the officer to take him to the hospital. The officer instead calls for an ambulance.
The couple was just 3 miles from the hospital when they were stopped. It took over 6 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.
During the stop, the officer callously listens to the begging couple’s pleas for help as Kressin slips further away. “He’s going to die! He can’t breathe!” screams Kressin’s girlfriend. We can hear Kressin begging for help as he falls to the ground, starving for air, “I can’t breathe…..I can’t breathe.”
The officer just stares at the couple, telling them to wait for the ambulance. By the time the ambulance arrives, it takes another 2 and 1/2 minutes before Kressin begins his journey to the hospital; sadly too much time had passed. Police say Kressin became unresponsive at that time and was pronounced dead at Saint Joseph’s Hospital.
Chippewa Falls Chief Wendy Stelter says she stands behind the officers who responded, saying that Kressin’s girlfriend should not have been allowed to drive the rest of the way because she was hysterical.
However, she was only hysterical because her boyfriend was dying and being kept from life saving treatment that could have saved his life.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefreethoughtproject.com ...
Once the patient crashes, the window of opportunity closes quite a bit faster than other types of calls.
What is also not known is what information they got on dispatch and on arrival.
They should have put it in high gear when they heard “asthma” and done what they could.
It is policy in almost every police department to call for ambulance and paramedics on encounters with injured or critically ill people.
Police are not generally supposed to transport or escort people with life-threatening medical conditions.
Sometimes this policy does not work out very well.
If I was speeding to the hospital, I wouldn’t have stopped for a police officer, I would have used him as my trailing escort. It’s not like the officer is going to drive them off the road.
Have you reviewed the video?
Now with the risk of the girl friend getting into an accident or the cop getting in an accident it was just safer to call the ambulance.
The city will be sued and settle out of court. That's the recommended procedure.
If he wanted to breathe he should have asked the cop for permission. /sarc
Well, you have obviously not reviewed the data. Or you are unreasonable and unencumbered by the thought process..
I don't follow. If the ambulance was being dispatched from the hospital, it would have to cover twice the distance to get the patient to the hospital as would the car.
The person would get treated in the ambulance.
The driver then made her decision and stayed.
Once the cop was on-scene, the driver really could make no decision. If the driver decided to continue, the cop most probably would have forcefully prevented it.
If I was the driver and if I thought it was better for me to continue on, I would tell the policeman that I'm not waiting and that I'm driving to the hospital.
> It’s not like the officer is going to drive them off the road.
Bets?
[I agree with your approach, but, IMO, that is not a safe assumption.]
An accident involves INJURY, not illness. Everyone knows it is unwise to move injured people without proper triage and prep.
This guy was ill,not injured. Clearly he moved himself and could have been moved by anyone else.
Next analogy, please.
That's certainly a course of action I would have considered.
When you say “they” you paint with a mighty broad brush.
Get a clue.
Good point.
I would tell the policeman that I'm not waiting and that I'm driving to the hospital.
That would be a reasonable thing to do. Unfortunately, you'd probably instead end up cuffed in the back seat of a police cruiser.
But if we are assuming it takes the same time for each vehicle to get to the hospital, then the time the GF would get to the hospital and be treated would be THE SAME as the ambulance making it to her and starting treatment.
Of course, that is assuming the hospital had the ambulance. It could be a closer fire or ambulance company.
“We have procedures that have been set in place to maintain order; we cannot allow every nonconformist to dictate to society.”
.
Once he collapsed to a prone position he had about 30 seconds left to live.
...
Does that mean that if he had laid him down in the police car and driven him to the hospital, he still would have died?
They’re getting sued, and rightly so.
So much for false dilemmas.
.
Police are poorly trained to deal with people who have breathing problems. Worse yet, much of what police are trained to do will aggravate breathing problems in susceptible individuals.
Police are not paramedics. However, they do need to be able to recognize critical medical conditions and use appropriate procedures for them, other than the standard demands for compliance.
Global cooling can cause nasty weather all across Dixie....
I saw an episode of Adam 12 recently where a cop was shot. They got the car close enough to get him in the back seat although there was gunfire still going on.
They began transporting him to the hospital but met an ambulance on the was an exchanged him since the Los Angeles ambulances have trained paramedics on them.
If they would not do the same for an injured civilian they came upon, it only means they think more of the cops life.
Those shows btw are screened by LAPD for accuracy and conformity to their rules.
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