Qwasie Reid: US Paramedic Suspended Without Pay for Helping Child Who Was Choking
1st November 2015
Qwasie Reid, an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) in New York City, was transporting a nursing home patient to a doctor’s appointment in an ambulance last week when he was flagged down by a “frantic man” near a Brooklyn school who said a student was choking.
Ignoring his partner’s advice to stay in the ambulance, he went to help the seven-year-old who had reportedly started choking while eating a sandwich.
According to WABC-TV, Mr Reid “cleared out the little girl’s mouth, put an oxygen mask on her, used a defibrillator and started CPR.”
Mr Reid told the TV station that the girl, Noelia Echavarria, was already “blue in the face and lips” when he got there but that no one at the school had administered first aid.
He said he was subequently suspended without pay by his employer, Assist Ambulance.Company, because the firm’s policy forbids paramedics from making any unauthorised stops.
I would not work for such a company. Hopefully this guy will get a job elsewhere.