I always stop if no one is around or if everyone is just standing around looking uncertain. I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to, I feel compelled to go help. Lawsuits be damned, just stick to within your scope of practice and you’re fine. Or if you’re really that nervous, stabilize them and call EMS, and then leave… don’t just do nothing.
Broken ribs with CPR? That’s in your scope of practice. They were a DNR and you didn’t know? Doesn’t matter, EMS is gonna do the same, it’s not worth risking a life because you’re not sure. They have DNR tattooed on their forehead? Still doesn’t matter, it doesn’t count (though I may personally make a judgment call on that one)
The fear of lawsuits is just a little overhyped, there are laws to protect against them. Just stay within your scope and help
In the US, you can’t be held liable for making a good-faith effort to render aid; it’s called the Good Samaritan Law.
That’s inaccurate.
Samaritan laws aren’t national. They also don’t always apply to licenced professionals, though if you’re acting in scope, you’ll usually be fine.
Those laws are state based in the US, as are duty to rescue laws and related ones.
https://thelegalguide.org/good-samaritan-law-coverage-united-states/
That’s your basic breakdown.
Generally speaking though, being in a different state from the one you’re licenced in changes you to be a “civilian”, as not all licensure transfers automatically. Depends on the state, and what your license is in.
In other words, as always in the US, never assume that what you think is law is actually law everywhere in the US. People get tripped up by it
both.
your mom has a skillset that allows her to help.
your sister is useless and can’t help.
make sure you tell her that too.
Well, they both need to follow local law regarding their duty to provide aid. It varies around the country. They’d likely be protected as long as they didn’t break professional ethics, but it does vary some.
There’s “duty of care” (where you are obligated to provide aid, usually due to your profession) and separately there’s “Good Samaritan” laws (you don’t have to help, but you are qualified to do so and protected from any results). The details on both of these vary tremendously based on jurisdiction and circumstance, particularly the Good Samaritan requirements.
Yup, but in this case duty of care is more important overall since the sister is an RN. It’s the difference between a possible lawsuit and criminal charges (depending on location) if anyone finds out she didn’t render aid.
You know what’s fucked up? My state at one point was set up so that if you were CPR certified, you weren’t covered for the usual broken ribs kind of injuries. But if you weren’t, you were clear. So a lot of people in my job (nurse’s assistant) just skipped CPR certification entirely. It meant that we weren’t required to do it at all, but that if we did, we were legally covered under good Samaritan.
They fixed it eventually, but it was fucking annoying.
Even worse, if you had a patient that didn’t want resuscitation, but hadn’t gotten an advanced directive or dnr done before becoming unable to, if you were certified, you had to do it. But if you weren’t, you weren’t allowed to. So, again, NAs had to decide what level of exposure they would tolerate vs what ethical boundaries they had, and fit it against the impossible to predict needs of future patients.
RNs, however, were required to keep a CPR cert (though it later got fixed so that an RN was automatically considered certfied).
Some of the labyrinthine bullshit around emergencies is just stupid.
In the US you usually don’t have a duty of care for random people you may encounter during random activities. I would be amazed if she has a duty of care for people involved in traffic accidents that she happens to see, when she’s not part of the first responders (EMTs and the like). She’s not being paid for this work, and has signed no agreement to take that responsibility.
If you are talking about a specific jurisdiction where this is not the case, please let me know.
Yeah, it’s like: the world? Render aid. America? Fuck no for lawsuits.
It’s not the people who are sue-happy. It’s the health insurance companies trying not to pay for coverage. The completely absurd lawsuits - McDonalds coffee, aunt suing nephew, all the suits against good samaritans - are subrogated cases, where the named plaintiff is obligated to allow their insurer to file suit in their name.
Subrogation is also behind most medical malpractice cases: health insurers suing doctors and hospitals in the name of the patient, just so the insurer isn’t the one paying the bill.
The McDonald’s one wasn’t crazy either if you look into it, McDonald’s engaged in unsafe practices which lead to a customer being hurt
The coffee was so hot it fused her labia together. Straight up melted her fuckin pussylips.
The coffee was not some unbelievable temperature, it was the temperature of boiling water. Same temperature I deal with everytime I make a cup of black tea.
The crazy part was that her bills were only going to be covered if she filed suit. The original demand was for just $20,000 to cover those bills.
The fucking McDonald’s case will never cease to haunt the internet.
In civilised countries there are robust laws protecting the customers and oversight agencies doling out fines or even closing down unsafe establishments. In the US, you have to sue the restaurant that caused you disfigurement and disability through their repeated and reported unsafe practices just so you can pay your resulting medical bills, and the internet will forever ridicule you for it.
Your mom
I also think there’s a non-zero chance to get into trouble but there’s also a non-zero chance to get hit by lightning soooo…
BOOM, ROASTED!
Wtf. In germany you can geht in trouble if you dont help but could.
This is an interesting one.
I applaud your mom for helping, she must be prepared at all times? I mean I carry an AFAK (Advanced Individual First Aid Kit) to work or to the range for example. But I would be totally useless in a traffic accident. Like okay, maybe I can tourniquet a limb, put a splint on (high risk), or use a homeostatic bandage and maybe that will get you by until EMS shows up. Really, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, you could kill someone.
And your sister is completely correct. You don’t have to be right to sue someone, odds are it’s a wasted expense on both parties. Anecdotally, when my sister got into a car accident with my car, the stupid cunt my sister had ran into had the gall to try and sue my mom as well as myself. They couldn’t get to me at all, I was 2000 miles away. If only I had my personal attorney that I do today, I would have sued right back.
It depends on what kind of a nurse your sister is. Not all nurses have the same experiences and well it could traumatize them for life. I would trust a combat medic over most nurses. I mean I had a nurse that fucked up an IV 4 times before I told him hey do it like this, I need to be mobile, tape here, tape there. My mom was a head nurse, and when she had surgery it was funny to hear how many times she had to correct the nurses.
Another thing is your mom might have the eye of who’s viable and who’s a casualty. And that’s a hard thing to accept. I mean going home one time, I saw a guy on the road from a motorcycle crash and people trying to help him. He’s screaming in agony, blood is everywhere. No helmet. Think, a peak time parking lot of cars you see in California traffic surrounding the area. I was like, yeah he’s dead, I think I saw it the news actually creepy. At least my brain mostly blocked out that one except the screams.
So yeah, your sister might not want to experience that nor has the confidence to mend a situation like that.
But I would be totally useless in a traffic accident. Like okay, maybe I can tourniquet a limb, put a splint on (high risk), or use a homeostatic bandage and maybe that will get you by until EMS shows up.
don’t underestimate how important it is to be able to evaluate a casualty. your training and skills will stop those ‘oh I’m fine’ 0.o pupils dilated types that want to go home, or knowing what shock looks like, knowing that feeling clammy and sick to one’s stomach might indicate a cardiac event etc., I hope people don’t give up on helping others, stuff like this saves lives.
I know, I help when I can. Part of why I carry an AFAK to work, had a coworker step on a nail. He didn’t notice because he’s diabetic. I noticed bloody shoe prints everywhere, at least the first aid kit had homeostatic powder. He was good enough to go home with a wrap. While he didn’t panic, I know there are plenty of people that would.
. He didn’t notice because he’s diabetic.
ah fuck. the recovery on those kinds of wounds is awful too, takes forever. good catch tho, probably saved his life or his foot
both are right, product from their era. People have become more litigious, and your sister grew up with that culture, whereas your mother didn’t
Depends on the country. Eastern countries like China,Russia, and South East Asia, hell ya. They fake like you hit them, they’ll run into you parked and fall over, they’ll fall on corners and you help them up they’ll sue you for hurting them. There’s tons of videos on YouTube, and I lived in China for about 10 years. At first I was like WTF why won’t anyone help that old lady? My friend is like “bro, no” and explained it. Over 10 years I saw it like weekly.
West not as much. It does happen though. There are laws to protect the person helping as well. If it ever went to a trial it’s pretty obvious you pulled up to help and didn’t do anything crazy besides maybe a tourniquet, CPR, and or called 911.
Your mom, good Samaritan laws are a thing
You are talking about a legal issue which means it’s very specific to local laws. Some countries actually have laws that protect those who try to help. Some countries actually have laws that enforce medical professionals to help at the site of an accident. And some countries don’t have that and you can be liable for stuff like that. So it really depends.
Anyone can sue anyone else for anything. That doesn’t mean anything will come of it or even reach a courtroom.
There are laws that protect you when you offer help in most if not all states. Get familiar with yours.
ChatGPT tells me all 50 US states have Good Samaritan laws, but the details vary. However since it didn’t give me the link to verify, that may be just a hallucination
Is this an attempt at satire, or is this your first day?
It was attempted. The serious point is most places have some variation of a Good Samaritan law, so you shouldn’t be afraid to help. However like others said, the details vary by locale so there is no single answer. I even saw one where medical professionals were mandated to help.
Good Samaritan laws generally protect you if you act in good faith to save someone, although there are still occasional lawsuits.
Then it was an attempt at satire, apparently a poor attempt
Well, then have an upvote from me.
Why even bother posting this?
Slop
