I have no medical experience and I can just see an attorney saying "so how is it that you see that you are fit to render medical help....are you a doctor???....do you have medical training???....why didn't you just wait for the ambulance or a trained professional???.....do you know you were negligent and probably caused more harm that help???...."
I just got out of the first aid course at work today. And as I said before, the treatment for a open bleeding wound is direct pressure. I asked, "When wouldn't you apply direct pressure to a wound?" The answer was when someone has a skull fracture, as you might push the skull into the brain. So again, it is very simple, if someone is shot, apply direct pressure. You are not going to agrevate the wound. When something is bleeding profusely, you try to stop it by putting a bandage and direct pressure over it. It isn't brain surgery. A lawyer might just ask those questions above, which you lawyer will already have coached you to respond, "I applied direct pressure to the wound in order to stop the bleeding." If the person dies because you couldn't stop the bleeding, you are still fine, as they would have died had you done nothing. End of that argument. You don't have to have training, you don't have to be a Dr., it is simply common sense. And the good samaritan laws do protect you. If you don't have faith in them, don't help anyone then. If someone is dying or in trouble, don't draw your gun, don't offer help, don't do anything. You might have enough risk tolerance to dial 911 and I guess that might be a step in the right direction.
I guess I just get frustrated when everyone throws common sense out the window and just lives in fear and paranoia. I see it all the time at work. People are unwilling to stand up and do what is right or to ask for what they deserve because they are afraid of lawyers or bosses and what they can do to them. When you make the right decisions and you do the right thing, good people should not have anything to fear. Yes the world sucks, yes people get raw deals, but I am not going to live in fear or avoid doing the right thing because corrupt people will make it hard on me if I do. If that is the way things happen, oh well. I can still be confident that I didn't shirk my duty or responsiblity and that I did the best I could. Might that be naive, might that be putting me at risk to get sued? Sure. Might I save a life, might I stop criminals and bad people from taking advantage of good people? Yes. I chose not to live my life in fear. If the lawyers want to take me down, lets fight it out in the courts. If my boss wants to go after me because they were wrong and I spoke up, lets go. If I lose because the system is flawed, so be it. Someone has to take some stands and do what is right in this world. When good people say nothing, the lawyers and greedy don't hesitate to take advantage. I don't intend on making it easy for them.
So if I determine the scene is safe and I apply direct pressure on a bleeding subject that shot at me, I accept the risk. If I decide the scene isn't safe and I don't help out the subject, I accept the risk. Whatever I decide, I know that it will be withing my legal abilities and if some lawyer wants to make an issue of it, lets do it. Why I am at it, I might as well counter sue the criminal for punitive and emotional damages. Why be the prey in court when I can be the predator. There is a thought. Instead of worrying about getting sued for acting within the law, why not start suing those that don't act within the law. When are we going to take back our power and authority and stop giving it to criminals and lawyers?
