but i still believe he should have called the paramedics anyway.

Maybe so? But like I already said, sometimes you don't have time to think through the different situations, and it's best to take it upon yourself to get things done, because sometimes it's the fastest way. He did what he did because he thought it was best, and there's no reason to get on someone because they're trying to save someone's live; specially someone they've just married and are probably really close to. (Obviously.)

The cop was stupid because the man obviously couldn't be bothered with a ticket, when his wife was having a stroke. The cop should have just thrown it away or waited when it was a better time for the husband. I'm pretty sure, we'll find that the cop was going for some sort of quota.

Wow, that's just not even fair. It sounds like the couple has been through a lot already and to put them through this is just extremely uncool of that cop.

I wouldnt stop for a cop if I was the husband. If the cop wants to talk we can talk at the hospital. I do hope they do take this business to court.

@ MorrowindFan, If I were you I would go over to that police station, whereever that arrest stemmed from and I would give whoever is in charge a piece of my mind.

I will say one thing, time is very important when administering treatment for a stroke and each moment that passes prior to administering tPA or some other thrombolytic agents. The faster the treatment, the less permanent damage such as paralysis, impaired speech and such. Given soon enough, there is frequently almost no impairment at all. If I was a few blocks from a hospital when my hubby or another loved one or even a stranger had what I believed to be a stroke, I would put them in the car and take my chances of a traffic ticket rather than waiting for the time it took to send an ambulance. And I would expect a police officer to hang out until the initial emergency was under control to issue me a ticket. I sure would not expect them to try and stop me from entering the hospital in the middle of it all.

Now that said, we really don't have anyone's description of the event except the couples. So until we know the hospitals side and the police officer's side we really don't have the whole picture. But medical emergencies should come prior to tickets for running a stop light especially when the destination ended up being an emergency room.

Nuh-uh, MO in these kinds of situations is ALWAYS to call 911. You don't do anything else, you call 911, if you don't, you are wrong.

There is a reason why there are traffic laws; he put himself, his wife and numerous other people in lethal danger by disregarding them, just because he couldn't be bothered to call 911.

See, there is another side of this story. Why are you ignoring it and assuming that the one you read on the internet is the complete and infallible truth?



He also couldn't be bothered calling 911 and letting the people who actually drive ambulances for a living worry about getting her to the hospital.

Hospitals should have a video recording of the incident, if the assault happened on hospital property or around it, no?

Lcars, you have to realize that in a stroke time is VITAL. It was quicker to drive her there himself than to wait for an ambulance, I'm sure. 911 is not always the right answer.

You don't know that.

In fact, none of us know anything at all aside from the incredibly biased story that appeared on the internet.

Before we know more, shouldn't we halt our judgement and stop wishing bodily harm to the police officer just because "Everyone knows policemen are pricks!"?

I do know that time is VITAL when it comes to strokes.

I don't know if driving there would have been quicker, but since he drove, I assume it was.

Only one or two people wished harm to the officer, and, like it or not, there are bad policemen out there.

Which is why I'm starting to realize just how pointless all these "breaking news" threads are. All they ever consist of is nearly every member jumping on the "I hate this/him/her" bandwagon and ranting for 5+ pages. :shrug:

If it is in a city, most of the time it is still faster to ring for an Ambulance. This might be just in the Uk, but we have Ambulance stations in the majority of towns and if there isn't one within a certain distance you can usually find an Ambulance sitting in a layby nearby. When I had a cycling accident it took two minutes from 999 being dialled to the ambulance turning up, despite the fact that the nearest hospital is 15 miles away.

They also have the advantage of being able to go though cities much faster.

they can't do anything for her in the ambulance except try to keep her stabilized and rush her there as fast as possible

Sounds like the groom was out of control. He could have gotten himself and his wife killed, running red lights and blowing off a cop. He should have stopped immediately and allowed the officer to summon an ambulance. There would then have been no trouble at the hospital, and his wife would have received care quite a bit sooner.

The more acute the emergency, the greater the need NOT TO SELF-TRANSPORT. You don't have life support equipment. You don't have radio communication with the hospital. You cannot both render aid and drive safely. You may end up guilty of a colossal screw-up like this one. Let the pros do their job.

What is amazing is that this f'lah is a military medic and yet panicked to this degree. I'm sure he wasn't trained to blow off waiting for proper transport and blow off MPs in Iraq, yet he did so at home.



Actually, they can. They have personnel much better trained to assess her and much better equipment and supplies to stabilize her. They have radio communication with the hospital emergency room, so that the emergency room will be prepared for her when she arrives. They will avoid the entire grotesque and dangerous scenario of a panicked man barging past a policeman and into an emergency room with a patient whose condition is not known to anyone present and who has not been maintained during transport.

You make good points, Dogsbody. Somehow I don't picture that particular policeman reacting to the situation quickly enough and transporting her to the hospital, but possibly he would have.

That may be the MO, but people don't always call 911. Mainly because most people don't know what to say when they call 911, and end up saying the wrong thing before the call center person can get them to say the correct thing (it's happened before, and people die because people don't know how to talk when calling 911). You're not wrong for not calling 911, if your having an emergency. You don't need to call 911 each time you have an emergency either. If a woman was pregnant, or I got stabbed, you wouldn't have to call 911, you could just rush to the hospital yourself in both instances. And how do you know what the traffic was like, during the whole situation? How do we know, if it was heavy traffic or not; which it seems your assuming it's heavy traffic. That's not the point though, he may have put his wife in danger, but the thing is, they didn't get into any accident or problem with traffic. I think in those situations, not having in one of those types of situations personally, the husband wasn't thinking of others, he was thinking of his wife.

He was focused on getting his wife to the hospital, and every minute counts if it's severe enough. Which obviously the husband thought it was. So why just stand around on your toes, and wait while she gets worse, than take it upon yourself to make sure she gets their sooner?

And I'm not taking what I read to be the whole story, I'm just standing on the side of the husband. If I was in his position, I know for a fact, that an ambulance where I live wouldn't be fast enough. Specially at certain times of the day, and I'd take it upon myself to get my girlfriend or whoever it was to the hospital myself because I'm there, the ambulance isn't, and I've got keys and a car. So why not get to the hospital myself?

We don't really have enough facts to judge if he was being reckless or not, though. In the article he says that he "paused at two red lights", which to me sounds like he stopped to check if it was clear before running the red light. How could anyone possibly sit there waiting for the light to change, with no traffic in sight, while your newly-wed wife dies beside you?

Again, we don't have enough facts, but my speculation is that he took a calculated risk, rather than a purely irrational one.

And I think summer raises a very pertinent point in time being a factor. Whenever you change a plan once in motion it just wastes more time, and it seems like the hospital wasn't too far away or surely the officer would have had time to request backup to stop the motorist. The fact that he only ran two red lights would also suggest it was a short distance (especially across town.) Again, just speculation.

But I think the real story here is how the officer continued to throw the book at this clearly-distressed individual who was in the midst of a genuine emergency, instead of possibly seeking a more civil solution - and that alone makes me sick.

Over here if it is an emergency or there is any doubt you dial 999 (our equilivent of 911) always. They have access to far more resources than most people as they can do things like send a helicopter.

I have also known them in some cases dispatch two vehicles from two difference places because one might get their faster.

from the articles:

Hopefully that clears up the "let a professional deal with it.." since they are both professionals at the hospital that he drove to. <-- they both have intimate knowledge of her condition. Hell, they probably met during work..

Also, working there means he knew exactly how to drive there, which roads to take, and probably how long. Without having the ambulance have to get there first. Also tells us why he called the hospital instead of 911. They both work there!! Co workers, doctors and staff with intimate knowledge of her condition.

Here's a thought, you call 911, and get an ambulance from another hospital... oops.

also
This doesn't sound like reckless driving to me, in lieu of someone having a stroke in my car..


This sounds like the dumbest attempt to evade arrest I've ever heard of.

And why didn't the cop just issue the ticket once the husband exited the emergency room -it's not like the guy is going to bolt out of a window..
besides, He Works There....
and to seemingly cover their collective behinds, the police are dumping a truckload of charges on top of the ticket, instead of doing the decent thing, and asking how his wife was doing..
/2cts

I think we're all forgetting here that being anything but entirely rational and coldly logical when the person you've just married is knocking on death's door is a sin punishable by death. I mean come on, who's going to panic and act in a silly way when someone they love is in danger?

You'd need to be some sort of human being to do that.

I also like that most people here think they're more justified to comment on the course of action than trained doctors.

Actually, that's exactly what puzzles me about the incident. A trained medic, who even works for the hospital where he was going, should have known better, even under panic conditions, than to attempt an emergency transport on his own. You just don't do that. You leave it to the people who have the means to do it right.

This.

If it was your wife could you have remained cool and calm? The wife's life was on the line, you can't seriously believe he would just sit patiently waiting for medical services that might not make it in time. You can't believe that of anyone.

Actually, I would raise 911 immediately, wait and give first aid. Not drive; you can't help when you're driving. Not barge into an emergency room unexpected; the only worse person to attempt to deal with successfully than a pissed-off triage nurse would be the cop or security guard I ran through.

The time at which you're most likely to lose your head is the time at which being calm is the most important of all. My father-in-law's been through a very similar situation a few times. That's why I said let the pros do their job. If you're too close to the situation and try to do it for them, you will do it badly and put your loved one in even greater danger. And if you yourself are among the pros, you should know that better than anyone else.

Unless you're http://www.albinjohnson.com/cool/robots/robots1/terminator.jpg or http://www.firstshowing.net/img/kurt-soldier.jpg