||| FROM ALI BOE |||


It was disheartening (to put it mildly) to see how a recent tragedy was discussed in this public meeting [Board of Fire Commissioners].

I came to the meeting grieving for my friend. Grateful, absolutely, for the assistance and care provided by the skilled and compassionate responders. Grateful for the outpouring of love and support shown by this community, but still very raw and grieving.

To join this public meeting and see the self-congratulatory glee with which my friend’s medical emergency was discussed… well, it made me sick.

And angry.

I have many friends in the medical field and I have seen the excitement that comes with an opportunity to practice a rare procedure. This is always discussed with full anonymity, which often requires passage of time before it can be mentioned. My partner is an EMT and I’ve had friends assume I know about their 911 call because he responded; I never know what they’re referring to, as it should be.

What I hadn’t yet experienced until this evening is the outright disregard for the human patient while celebrating one such opportunity for a rare procedure. So you finally got practice a skill after a decade-long dry spell? Cool bro. Cool. Good for you, and thanks for doing it, really. However. This was a public meeting. The patient being discussed is very dear to many of us, and we’re hurting. We’re raw with grief, and struggling to maintain hope.

The only reason commissioner Helminski didn’t entirely violate HIPPA (by directing the public to the patient’s YouTube page) is that he was interrupted and reigned back in by the district secretary. Should a commissioner need to be reminded of HIPPA? I don’t think so.

Here’s the thing. This is a very small community. By now, most people here know who was involved in the accident that was being discussed. Most are also experiencing a lot of pain and confusion and grief right now. To hear the details of our friend’s brutal injuries discussed with an energy I can only describe as celebratory… it was shameful.

To make matters worse, the physician from Airlift Northwest who was in the meeting shared inaccurate information about the patient’s prognosis, adding to the celebratory tone of the conversation. Thing is, the prognosis isn’t good. And no one was celebrating our friend’s health; it was all self-aggrandizement. To what end? I left that meeting feeling like the leadership at Orcas Fire used my friend’s tragedy as a PR stunt to improve their public image.

This incident should have been discussed in detail, from a tactical and procedural standpoint, in Run Review (meeting among the responders), not in a public meeting. Even in Run review, I would hope that more compassion would be shown for the patient. In the public forum, a brief mention of a job well done and best wishes sent to the patient would suffice. The display this evening was absolutely shameful.

Do better.


 

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