Keep in mind, that in most of the country, emergency services (Fire, Rescue and EMS) are performed/staffed by volunteers. Professionally trained, as most must meet the same training/certification/licensing standards as their career counterparts. In my mind this is the citizenry fending for themselves though collective agreement and the desire to be of service. Yes, the government in many cases controls the training/certification/licensing standards, but it is still up to average Joe/Jane to decide to get involved and make a difference.

As to the actions of any emergency services provider, tunnel vision is a well-documented phenomenon, whether career or volunteer, to which the individual must constantly guard against. Even with extensive training, the heighten level of excitement will often cause individuals to ignore hazards or changing conditions around them, resulting in injury or death. That is why all Incident Command Structures regardless of the current terminology always have a Scene/Incident/Technical Safety Officer, whose main job is to look at all operations from a dispassionate point of view with regard to the rescue/suppression operations and concentrate only on safety.

Here is one minor example of a well intention, somewhat trained individual that caused a victim to experience additional discomfort and delay in transport:

Our team responded to a mountain rescue, where an individual had fallen a considerable distance and the patient’s condition warranted a Medevac. We arrived on the scene with the patient in critical condition with head trauma and fractured lower leg. A well-meaning individual with wilderness first aid training placed an improvised splint using a couple of padded tree branches. Good idea, except the branches were just too long to load the patient in the helicopter. We had to remove the splint and reapply a SAM splint that would allow the patient to be transported. This took at least an additional 10 minutes and significant discomfort to the patient. Keep in mind, with a critically injured patient, our goal is to reduce on scene time to 10-15 minutes total, so we can stay within the “Golden Hour” (1 hour from time of injury to arriving at a Trauma Center). Well-intentioned and noble efforts, without understanding the result/implication of such actions can lead to further injury and death.

Pete