Tag Archives: ketamine

The US Eighth Circuit has joined a growing number of circuit courts holding that fire and EMS personnel who restrain a combative patient should not be evaluated under the Fourth Amendment excessive-force analysis that applies to police officers. Rather, fire and EMS personnel are “acting as medical responders, not as law enforcement officers,” and as such may be acting in an objectively reasonable manner when administering a sedative to a patient.

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Seven EMS personnel from two Kansas agencies are facing discipline by the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services over a 2019 incident in which a suicide victim with fatal injuries was not transported to an emergency room despite having a pulse and labored breathing for over 10 hours.

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A Colorado man is suing firefighters and police officers responsible for administering the sedative ketamine during an encounter last year. Jeremiah Axtell filed suit last week naming the Lakewood Police Department, West Metro Fire District and numerous individual officers and firefighters.

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A Minnesota paramedic who resigned last year has filed suit in federal court alleging he was retaliated against for reporting the falsification of EMS training attendance records and because he refused a police sergeant's direction to administer ketamine to a patient. Joseph Paul Baker filed suit last week naming the City of Woodbury, the fire chief and two fire commanders.

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