At one time or another we have all seen the newspaper headlines - "Firefighter Charged With Arson," "Firefighter Charged in Burglary," "Paramedic Pleads No Contest to Hit-and-Run Death," "Fireman Charged with Sex Crimes." Some simply say "Firefighter Charged."
That last headline, "Firefighter Charged," speaks volumes. Obviously, the nature of the crime is not the headline, but the fact that it involves a firefighter. In many cases that reach the newspaper headlines, the crimes did not even occur on the job, but the accused persons' profession certainly makes the headlines.
I have never seen newspaper headlines that say "Waiter Charged" or "Parking Lot Attendant Charged." Why not? Simply put, those who serve in the fire and EMS profession are held to a higher standard than most. USA Today conducted a poll of 1,025 adults during several weeks in November 2002. The participants were asked to rate various professions based upon their honesty and ethical standards. Firefighters received the highest rating, 90%, with nurses in second place at 84%.
When a person puts on a badge, there is an expectation on the part of the public that the person behind the badge is a law-abiding and honorable professional who has the public trust. As a friend from a fire department in Florida once said to me, "How many people can come through somebody's back door at 3 o'clock in the morning, go into their daughter's bedroom, conduct a physical assessment of her because of severe abdominal pain, and nothing is said except for maybe a thank you at the end of the call?" The citizen has to have tremendous trust of the profession, not of the individual, to allow someone to do that.
At one time or another, I as well as you have seen many of the newspaper headlines I mentioned above. But one recent headline caught my eye - "Paramedic Charged With Murder of Prisoner" - and if the allegations are true, this is repulsive and a smear on the entire profession.
Although a person charged with murder is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, in this case certainly there are volumes of evidence against the paramedic charged. In all, there are 4,000 pages of transcripts from the FBI and police probe into the beating and subsequent death of the prisoner.
Court documents allege the following: It all started in March 2002 at the Boyd County, KY, Detention Center. A prisoner named Chad Ray Boggess was in the "drunk tank" and was naked, bleeding, screaming incomprehensibly and hitting the sides of the wall when Paramedic Marty Johnson and his partner arrived at the lockup. Prior to the EMS unit's arrival, the prisoner allegedly had been beaten at the jail by two deputy jailers with a club, a chair and their fists.
Johnson called Medical Control to inquire whether he could go to the hospital to pick up some Haldol to sedate Boggess so that he could be transported to the hospital. Ultimately, the decision was made to subdue him and then transport him to the hospital.
When it came time to transport Boggess to the hospital, he was handcuffed, his legs were shackled and he was placed face down on the stretcher. A strap on the stretcher was also used to restrain the prisoner. Boggess was still combative, so Johnson took a side handle riot baton called a PR-24 from a deputy jailer and pressed down on the prisoner's neck. He held the baton on the prisoner's neck while the stretcher was moved from the jail to the ambulance. When they arrived at the ambulance, Johnson removed the baton from Boggess' neck as he was placed in the ambulance.
Johnson again applied the baton to the prisoner's neck after they arrived at the hospital, once the prisoner had been placed on an emergency room stretcher and was administered medication to sedate him. Johnson released the baton from the neck only after being told to do so by hospital security personnel who noticed that Boggess had turned blue. After the baton was removed from the prisoner's neck, they checked to see if he had a pulse. He did not, so resuscitative efforts began.
One deputy jailer also gave a statement to the FBI that Johnson talked to him at the hospital shortly after Boggess went into cardiac arrest. Johnson handed back the baton to the deputy and reportedly said, "Don't worry, what happens in the jail, stays in the jail." Boggess died 26 days after the incident at the jail after lingering in the intensive care unit. Johnson was charged with murder. The indictment stated the paramedic was charged with "wantonly asphyxiating" and "under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life…" The prisoner's autopsy report lists the immediate cause of death as "Complications of positional and mechanical asphyxia." According to the autopsy report, the method of restraint is what led to the asphyxiation.
"Positional asphyxia" is a phrase coined several years ago by Dr. Donald Reay, chief medical examiner for King County, WA, to describe what happened to patients who died in custody while being restrained. Reay conducted studies showing oxygen recovery rates in the body when influenced by extreme exertion. He also conducted experiments to determine what body position, specifically weight on the chest and stomach, has on one's ability to recover to normal heart rate and blood oxygen level. Finally, he studied whether the way in which one is restrained and the position of the body can impair the mechanical respiratory processes of inhaling and exhaling. Since then, studies have identified weaknesses in the methodology of Reay's studies and concluded that his results were invalid.
Regardless of whether or not you believe the theories surrounding positional asphyxia, if the news reports and court documents are true, this paramedic allegedly choked a patient in his care. It was during one of the choking episodes that the patient turned blue, stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. These actions are inexcusable on any paramedic's part and are not part of any medical training. If convicted, Johnson faces a prison sentence of 20 years to life.
Whether Johnson is convicted or found not guilty, what is the impression that people who live in this Kentucky community have of the emergency medical service system after a paramedic is charged with murdering a person? Our role is to do no further harm to someone in need. Who can forget the shame or who has not seen the images of firefighters turning high-pressure water hoses on protesters during civil unrest in the South in the 1960s? It took years for the fire service to recover from those images.
Unfortunately, emergency medical responders who commit crimes give the rest of us a bad name. Thankfully, out of the million-plus men and women who work in the EMS and fire profession, only a handful of unscrupulous individuals seem to filter into our ranks. However, one is one too many. We must constantly guard against those who would tear down our profession.
Gary Ludwig, MS, EMT-P, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is the chief of Special Operations for Jefferson County, MO. He retired in 2001 as the chief paramedic for the St. Louis Fire Department after serving the City of St. Louis for 25 years. He is also vice chairman of the EMS Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). He is a frequent speaker at EMS and fire conferences nationally and internationally, and is on the faculty of three colleges. Ludwig has a master's degree in management and business and a bachelor's degree in business administration, and is a licensed paramedic. He also operates The Ludwig Group, a professional consulting firm. He can be reached at 636 789-5660 or via www.garyludwig.com.
