EMTs face consequences for failing to provide aid to victim of police brutality [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

• Two Memphis Fire Department emergency medical technicians were fired and had their licenses suspended for failing to give aid to Tyre Nichols for 19 minutes while he struggled with injuries from being brutally beaten by police.
• The EMTs did not check Nichols’ vital signs or perform other basic medical examinations, violating state rules of emergency aid and treatment.
• Nichols, who died three days later at a hospital, was beaten by five Memphis police officers who have since been charged with second-degree murder.

Two emergency medical technicians from the Memphis Fire Department have had their licenses suspended and were fired after failing to provide aid to Tyre Nichols for 19 minutes after he was brutally beaten by police.

Nichols was beaten by five Memphis police officers on the night of January 7th after fleeing a traffic stop. The beating was caught on video, and the officers and other first responders were seen chatting and milling about as Nichols was unattended, handcuffed on the ground and slumped against a squad car.

Advanced EMT JaMichael Sandridge and EMT Robert Long arrived at the location where Nichols had been beaten and failed to check his vital signs or perform other basic medical examinations, despite the fact that Nichols showed “clear signs of distress, such as the inability to remain in a seated posture and laying prone on the ground multiple times,” according to documents released by the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services Division.

Nichols, 29, died three days later at a hospital. The firings of the five officers who beat him, who have since been charged with second-degree murder and have pleaded not guilty, led to intensified calls for police reform in Memphis and around the country.

Sandridge and Long failed to initiate a primary examination, which could have helped identify the presence of any life-threatening injuries. Nichols’ vital signs were not checked, he did not receive high-flow oxygen or an intravenous line, and he was not placed on a heart monitor. They also did not perform a secondary examination, which is used to establish any non-life-threatening injuries.

During the license suspension hearing last month, board member Sullivan Smith said it was “obvious to even a lay person” that Nichols “was in terrible distress and needed help.”

Source: apnews.com