Please be honest with EMT’s and Medics about using drugs
So I want to make a statement here after seeing tumblr’s featured post on the opioid epidemic. You’ve all heard the lectures, the sayings ‘don’t do drugs, drugs are bad,’ etc. But there are those of you who will use them anyways, and this post is for you. I’m not going to judge anyone who uses or intends to use any form of drug; that’s not my place. My request is this - please be honest about it if you call 911 for any medical emergency.
I’m an EMT out of the Pacific Northwest, and I live in an area with one of the nation’s highest levels of opioid overdoses. I’d like to point out that while this is the largest issue we face in my area, we also deal with a substantial amount of other drug overdoses as well. One of the biggest problems we face as EMT’s and Paramedics is not the usage of the substance itself, it’s treating it when the patient refuses to be honest about it. Legally, if you are conscious, alert and oriented to person, place, time and event, we cannot treat any presenting conditions unless (1) you give us permission and (2) you tell us everything that is relevant to what’s going on. Even if you don’t believe that your usage is related to your medical emergency, it is important for us to know in case your condition worsens. We are not law enforcement and neither do we share this information with them. In fact, there are laws in place that prevent us with sharing any of your personal information, (including drug usage) with anyone outside of the involved first responders and the hospital.
If you refuse to provide us with details on any form of substance abuse, guess what - nothing happens. We will just monitor your condition until you mentally deteriorate to the point you cannot make rational decisions and/or lose consciousness before we take action. This happened about a month ago to a young teenage girl we cared for who unfortunately passed away as a result. I’m not saying this is the end result for every instance, and I most certainly am not saying this to scare you. I say this to make you aware of what the other side of an overdose looks like. We don’t want you to become a statistic, we want you to live your life to the fullest; that’s why we’re here. But we can’t help unless you help us by being upfront.
So please do us and yourself a favor by providing us with the information we need to care for you. While it’s preferred you don’t do drugs period, we know that there won’t be a sudden stop to this nationwide epidemic.
Please share this with your friends, family and followers. You might just save a life doing so.
