Anonymous - Comments

"Currently, there are no Federal standards or standard protocols among EMS and child passenger safety professionals in the U.S. for how best to transport children safely in ground ambulances from the scene of a traffic crash or medical emergency to a hospital or other facility. The absence of consistent national standards and protocols regarding the transportation of children in ground ambulances complicates the work of EMS professionals and may result in the improper and unsafe restraint of highly vulnerable child passengers. As a result, EMS agencies, advocates and academicians have turned to NHTSA for leadership on this issue." First of all the fact that NHTSA has determined that there is another opportunity for the federal government to intrude on the states authority to regulate conduct within their states does not automatically require federal action. It would be interesting to know which EMS agencies, advocates and academicians have turned to NHTSA for leadership on this issue. Emergency medical care and trainsportation of sick and injured children is somewhat more complex than the five part rubric presented. While we have been encouraged to keep all patients secured to our stretcher, it is not always in the best interest of the patient. Although I consider myself to be a stickler on securing patients, several days ago circumstances caused us to completely ignore this issue. We were confronted by a pair of identical twin 2 1/2 year old girls in cardiac arrest status post drowning. I confess that none of the six of us in the back of the ambulance were restrained during the 3 minute trip to our local hospital. It was not a priority. You need to leave some matters to the best judgment of the trained professionals involved. This issue is best solved by an educational campaign designed to target EMS providers, not a national standard so that the lawyers can hang EMTs out to dry when there is a tragedy.