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I am getting sued for being a hero

#62
Nitzleplick said:
Not true, the Sternum is made of cartilage and it flexes. infact your ribcage spreads and flexes every time you breath. It takes immense force to break your ribs via pressure to your Sternum and would only happen under the most brutal cases of CPR.
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CPR actually has a fairly significant chance of breaking ribs. It's not guaranteed, and you don't HAVE to break ribs in order to do proper CPR. It's mostly in cases of elderly people that are a bit more fragile, but it can happen to anyone. It's also very possible to fracture a sternum, though it's not as common.
 
#63
MadMan118 said:
Go break her other other leg and throw her back in the river.
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This is my gut reaction, however:

When I was training to become a lifeguard, we were explicitly told not to get involved in highway accidents or anything like that, specifically for this reason. The paramedics who arrived on scene have insurance coverage through their work to cover lawsuits like this. You as a bystander do not.

When it comes right down to it, some people are just ********. Whether it's the person who sues you over a broken leg (VS death by drowning in ditch water trapped in a car... hmmmmm), or the ambulance chasing lawyer who puts 'em up to it, it the type of thing that disgusts me to my core and really makes me ashamed to be a human being. Everyone seems to be out to **** over everybody else these days. What ever happened to common decency between decent people? Where are the people happy to be alive after a car accident?

You're an amazing person for doing what you did, and certainly don't deserve anything even remotely close to getting sued over it. However, and don't take this the wrong way or anything, but if that persons neck was already broken from the crash you could have killed them, just by moving them. Paramedics are highly trained to recognize and deal with these extremely dangerous situations, and unless you have at least some kind of first aid training, I wouldn't recommend pulling people from car wrecks on a regular basis.

It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, and I honestly hope I never find myself in your shoes. Best of luck to you in the lawsuit.

I've let my first aid training lapse since I was a lifeguard back in my late teens, but I would love to get certified again. It's a quick and easy course, and just knowing the basics could save someone's life. I'd recommend it to everyone.
 
#64
DWBass said:
Yeah, helping people who are in danger of dying is a double edged sword. CPR requires one to actually crack a persons rib cage (or something like that) so you can compress air out of the lungs but damn if folks don't sue for injury! Thanks, I just saved your life and you sue me now?!
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Standard practice is to depress the chest about 2 inches. You can fracture or break ribs (obviously depends on the patient), but that isnt an issue, if it happens, it happens.

The chest compression part of CPR isn't to get air into or out of the lungs, it's to pump the heart. You only go into CPR if there is no pulse (with the exception of those new pulse-less things that they seem to give some politicians . . .)

If the heart isn't beating, blood isn't moving around the body. If blood isn't moving around the body, your organs aren't getting oxygen, they then start dying off pretty quickly (especially the brain).

You get air into the lungs via the "rescue breath" part of CPR.

What we were taught was that it doesn't matter if you break a few rips, if you aren't doing CPR, they'll be dead. End of!
 
#67
Reminds of a story a couple of years back. A doctor was at a restaraunt with his wife here in the city, when a patron started choking. He got out of his chair, performed the heimlich maneuver and broke a couple of the guys ribs. He saved his life, and you guessed it, got sued. Learned a great lesson that day. If someone's dying in front of me I'll just call 911 and keep on walkin'. Pathetic.
 
#69
i_got_a_mohawk said:
Standard practice is to depress the chest about 2 inches. You can fracture or break ribs (obviously depends on the patient), but that isnt an issue, if it happens, it happens.

The chest compression part of CPR isn't to get air into or out of the lungs, it's to pump the heart. You only go into CPR if there is no pulse (with the exception of those new pulse-less things that they seem to give some politicians . . .)

If the heart isn't beating, blood isn't moving around the body. If blood isn't moving around the body, your organs aren't getting oxygen, they then start dying off pretty quickly (especially the brain).

You get air into the lungs via the "rescue breath" part of CPR.
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Thanks. You are correct. It's been a LONG time since my last certification. I just remember the instructor making a 'point' about the ribs/chest plate breaking thing. I don't recall instruction on heart massage (I took basic CPR) but I do recall the fist in hand over the sternum and that breakage could occur.
 
#72
I agree the person is a slimeball. However, the way I look at it, I would much rather help someone and get sued, than not help them and have them get seriously injured or die. I'm not sure if I could live with myself knowing I had the chance to help someone...and I didn't. I realize it's kind of twisted logic, but at least I would always know I did the right thing.

You did the right thing....keep doing it.
 
#76
MadMan118 said:
Go break her other other leg and throw her back in the river.
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Throwing her sorry @$$ back in the swampy ditch was my first thought.

Actually, I'm not appalled by the lawyer. There are enough stories about this completely indecent behavior to expect that at least one attorney out there would file such a suit. The thing that's truly appalling to me is that an average person is slimy enough to agree to sue the person who saved their life.

I'd seriously hire an attorney just to offer a settlement. I'd offer not only throw her back in the swamp where I found her but I'd go above and beyond my so called "obligation" and offer to throw her attorney in there with her. Take it or leave it!
 
#80
Call a local newspaper and talk to one of the reporters. Name the woman and her attorney. Man, they would kill to write a story on something like this. It almost writes itself.

See if the attorney still wants to sue you in the light of day.
 

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