EMT suspended for stopping ambulance to help choking girl at a Brooklyn school
Seven-year-old Noel Echavarria remains on life-support after choking on her lunch at P.S. 250 in Brooklyn last week. There is controversy after EMT Qwasie Reid was suspended without pay by the firm Assist Ambulance for leaving a stable nursing home patient with his partner in an attempt to save Echavarria’s life. The ambulance was flagged down as it passed the school. Reid says he was told by Assist Ambulance that he made an unauthorized stop.
I’ve been watching this story waiting to find a reasonable answer as to why Reid was suspended. That’s been difficult because the ambulance company has had no comment. I’m not making an excuse for Assist Ambulance, but I’m wondering if a sentence buried in an article by the New York Daily News is a contributing factor in the company’s decision. It says that EMT Reid rode to the hospital with the FDNY ambulance that responded.
Reid told the station (NY 1) he believed a choking girl took priority over the transport, and, against his partner’s urging, administered aid to the 7-year-old, who he said had already turned blue. No one at the school was assisting the girl, he said.
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Reid told local TV station WABC that he cleared out the girl’s mouth, put an oxygen mask on her, used a defibrillator and started CPR.
“She was blue in the face and lips. No response. Unconscious unresponsive,” Reid told the station. He told local news website dnainfo.com that that the fire department arrived three to four minutes after he began CPR.
… he says he’s been suspended by the ambulance company for violating policies against technicians leaving their patients.
“I vowed to save a life, lives, as many as I could. That little girl, Noelia, superceded that gentleman that was in my ambulance that day. And I would never change anything if I had to, never,” Reid said.
Meanwhile, a panicked teacher and school safety agent ran outside for help, flagging down an EMT, Qwasie Reid, 25, who was sitting at a red light in his ambulance nearby.
Reid was working for a company called Assist Ambulance and had been transporting an elderly man in stable condition from an eye clinic to a nursing home.
Officials at the Brooklyn-based company didn’t respond to a request for comment. Reid said he’s already looking for a new job.
