Posted on 09/29/2025 12:04:57 PM PDT by Red Badger
This is absolutely insane!
Bureaucracy run amok, and that’s putting it kindly.
Folks, common sense is GONE in America, and this proves it once again.
Two first responders from Powell County in Kentucky saved a man’s life after he was bit by a poisonous mamba snake and was advancing towards cardiac arrest.
They administered anti-venom that they luckily had brought with them and saved the man who almost certainly would have died without it.
The problem?
Well, there is no problem if you ask me, but if you ask the red-tape bureaucrats the problem is they didn’t have the necessary “wilderness” certification necessary to administer anti-venom.
Unreal.
This guy explains it well here:
The KY Board of Emergency Medical Services should be thanking Eddie Barnes for saving a life. Instead they are trying to take his career away, because he acted.
Read and Listen ⬇️https://t.co/y58m20YlMV pic.twitter.com/WgFMtMtaro— Liam Gallagher (@LiamGallagherKY) September 29, 2025
Yahoo News / People adds these details:
Two first responders in Kentucky could potentially lose their licences after saving a man’s life.
Powell County paramedic Eddie Barnes and one of his team members were called to the Kentucky Reptile Zoo in May after the zoo’s co-director, James Harrison, was bitten by a poisonous mamba snake, local news outlet LEX 18 reported.
Barnes told the outlet that he and his teammate went with Harrison to the airport to wait for a medical helicopter. While they were waiting, Harrison told them he needed antivenom as soon as possible — and that he had brought his own from the zoo.
“He said the first part of the stage is paralysis, second part is respiratory arrest, third part is cardiac arrest. He said, ‘I’m gonna die,’ ” Barnes recalled while speaking to the outlet.
Barnes said he attempted to call his supervisor, who didn’t answer, and so he then reached out to Clark Regional Medical Center and spoke to an ER doctor who “gave us permission” to administer the antivenom.
Now, Barnes and his teammate may lose their EMS licenses due to a technicality: Only first responders classified as “wilderness paramedics” are authorized to administer antivenom, per the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services (KBEMS), according to LEX 18. The policy was put in place two years ago, per the outlet.
Neither Barnes nor his partner had wilderness paramedic certification at the time of the incident, and they now have a hearing scheduled for Sept. 30 to find out if they will get to keep their licenses.
Absolutely ridiculous!
Not a single moment more should be spent on this.
Give them an award for having the foresight to bring the anti-venom and save this man’s life!
VIDEO AT LINK........................
Well I guess if you can work as a school superintendent while being illegal, then everyone can be a doctor?
Did you read the article? It was at a zoo
And if they follow the “rules” and refused to give the anti-venom, they would be accused of letting the guy die. The zoo worker brought his own anti-venom… I’d freaking use it too, certifications (revenue source) be damned
Xlnt compromise. Better to get the venomous, and POISONOUS (if it bites your a**) mamba and release it under the table at the Kentucky Board of Emergency services meeting. Pandemonium ensues...
Must be why we have all those exotics living in the Everglades… I hope they brought their licenses with them 😉
Well if they want to be really even more stupid, why not take the ER doctor’s license for recommending treatment to someone he has never examined. And then charge the patient himself for taking the antidote snake serum in his pocket.
He was on vacation. Or maybe an illegal immigrant?
“Doc says you gonna die...”
Reading the article is against a time-honored FReeper tradition.
Good one
Nicely done!
Not quite “honored” but must have been done by “every” poster, at least once, on FR.
There was a presiding ER physician, the EMT’s were taking orders from, which in most states should provide the legal cover for these EMT’s operating under his orders. The EMT’s weren’t operating in a bubble as they may sometimes do when out of communications with a hospital. They were operating under a doctor’s directions and thus they were only the automatons extending thru themselves the doctor’s healing influence. Most states have laws allowing nurses and EMT’s to operate this way, especially under dire circumstances!
Also Mamba snakes aren’t a natural feature in Kentucky’s “wilderness” and thus it could be argued that even Kentucky’s “wilderness” certified EMT’s wouldn’t have been knowledgeable of Mamba snake anti-venin.
Common sense is not very common, especially among government bureaucrats who love to play “gotcha” games with people to justify their salaries.
Common sense is not very common, especially among government bureaucrats who love to play “gotcha” games with people to justify their salaries.
Nothing personal....but stop being so logical and reasonable. It will offend the Kentucky “Bored” of Medical Emergency committee.
When Emergency Medical Services demand that you get their approval before saving lives, then you can rest assured that they are no longer about Medical Services. The Entire KBEMS should be dismantled, if not sued personally into oblivion.
Your right...sigh! It must be that green blood in me!
If Governor Beshear doesn’t step in and clear up this FUBAR...
...if I was the victim Beshear’s political career would be OVER, along with any pol who refused to craft a bill to correct this FUBAR.
Off with their heads, so to speak.
smh
It goes to scope of practice. EMT’s have a limited scope of practice. Do something beyond that and you are subject to discipline.
The article is wrong. Snake anti venom is not carried on an ambulance especially for something as exotic as a mamba which isn’t found in the wild in Kentucky.
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