IN - Man has seizure, cops arrive to "help" ... man dies

[Occam's Banana]

Man has a Seizure, Cops Arrive to Help (he doesn’t make it)
https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2024/10/02/man-has-a-seizure-cops-arrive-to-help-he-doesnt-make-it/
{John H. Bryan | 02 October 2024}

Rhyker Earl, 26, suffered a seizure on the night of Sunday, Sept. 8, at a home in DeMotte, Indiana, about an hour and 15 minutes south and east of Chicago. His grandmother called 911 for help, and Jasper County sheriff’s officers came to the home. Earl suffered from epileptic seizures. Having just had a seizure, he was agitated and noncompliant with attempts by EMS personnel to take him to the hospital. One of the deputies took Early to the ground, whereupon other deputies, as well as EMS personnel, forcibly held him to the ground. He was handcuffed and restrained in a prone position on the floor of his grandmother’s kitchen. They repeatedly injective him with powerful sedatives, as they held him down. A short while later, he would be dead.

Man has a Seizure, Cops Arrive to Help (he doesn't make it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYpqgWM1Sw
{The Civil Rights Lawyer | 02 October 2024}


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Statement issued by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office:

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Media report here.

All raw footage here.

 

[Occam's Banana]

From the comments at the video (by @joleighva):

I’m a retired Fire Dept Paramedic. I have lost count how many seizure calls I worked over my career. This is honestly the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I have seen some seriously awful things- enough to give me C-PTSD. This man was in a post-ichtal state. It’s the period where the person’s brain is rebooting. During that time they need minimal stimulation. Minimal questions. Minimal touching. This entire situation, the patients’ agitation, was initially caused by the police, putting their hands on him, yelling commands, and roughing him up. Shame on this paramedic for not telling them to back off! Shame on this paramedic for not standing between them and their patient! Police officers are a hammer and all they ever see are nails. Everyone who isn’t cooperative they think it’s on purpose. I have had to physically get between one and my patient several times. I’ve had to ask cops to leave because they don’t understand what’s happening. They sure as hell would not send my firefighters away, who know to follow my instructions, and stay there instead. The person in charge of this scene is the Paramedic, because it is a medical call! Medical calls don’t need Police, if medics need help restraining a PATIENT, that’s what the Firefighters are for.

Now for the medic. This paramedic is going to end up without a certification, never work in the medical field again, and in jail for manslaughter, and they deserve it. Every medication they gave this man when he was awake and talking were contraindicated for seizure, because HE WASN’T SEIZING ANYMORE and I guarantee you not on any of their protocols. Each med then became a separate assault. At this point they were practicing medicine without a license! That they allowed themselves to be manipulated by the police into thinking of their patient as a suspect is unconscionable. If you showed this video to every Paramedic in the US, 99% of them (I allow that 1% could be too ignorant or uneducated) would say the same as me. I feel sick. I couldn’t watch all of it at one time. I had to do it in spurts. THIS is the great responsibility a Paramedic carries every day. To do no harm. You’re physically able to give people medications that CAN KILL THEM. When given properly and under protocol. I don’t know a greater responsibility than that.

Let me tell you how these calls usually go. You get there after the seizure has ended and the patient is post-ichtal. You gently get a set of vitals if it doesn’t rile the patient too much. If they are in a safe space, turned on their side is great, but not absolute, you leave an EMT with them while you speak to family quietly in another room and get the history/med info/identifying information/etc so the person’s brain has time to come back to normal. You return to the patient and try asking simple questions that don’t need brainpower to answer. Within a few minutes, the person can sit up and talk to you, though they are still very groggy. At that point, you ask if you can take them to the hospital. If they say yes, you do. If they say no, you ask them four orientation questions to determine if they’re oriented to person/place/time/event. (What’s your name? Where are we right now? What month is it? What happened today?) If they answer those questions appropriately, they are oriented and can REFUSE to be transported. You advise them that you feel they should go, and by refusing they are doing so against medical advice. If they still refuse, they sign a refusal form, you advise them to call back if needed, and you leave. If an oriented person who refused treatment and transport is forced to go to the hospital it is now ASSAULT & BATTERY and KIDNAPPING. People have a Constitutional right to make bad decisions against medical advice as long as they’re oriented X4. People who have seizures often refuse treatment and transport because all they’re going to do at the hospital is check their med levels and observe them for a few hours to make sure they don’t seize again, then send them a bill for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Instead, a young man is dead. That Paramedic should be on immediate leave. They should never be allowed to touch a patient again. An internal investigation has been launched and will lead to their firing, hopefully VERY quickly. Once the autopsy is done and his cause of death is determined (suffocation from the pillow? Positional asphyxiation? Respiratory failure? Effect of one the drugs on his heart? Etc) I suspect that what’s happening right now is a Prosecutor getting their ducks in a row to charge this Paramedic, their partner, the cops and possibly even the Firefighters if they touched the patient. And they will deserve every bit of it.
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