Kansas Board of EMS summary order on downtown Wichita suicide call
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Crisis at Sedgwick County EMS
An Eagle investigation revealed a broken emergency medical system. Read our investigative series on the crisis at Sedgwick County EMS.
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The Kansas Board of EMS has opened an investigation into Sedgwick County EMS for its handling of a 2019 emergency where a 31-year-old Wichita man died.
The investigation follows several proposed sanctions against eight first responders — four Sedgwick County EMS workers and four Wichita firefighters — who were on the scene of the call and followed former EMS director Dr. John Gallagher’s order not to transport the patient to an emergency room a mile away.
Although the man had a gunshot wound to the head, he continued breathing and had a pulse as he laid on the floor of his downtown Wichita apartment for five hours before he was covered with a white sheet and loaded into an ambulance. He died more than 10 hours after the 911 call at a hospice center.
The Kansas Board of EMS says the responders should have immediately taken the man to an emergency room.
Here is the state board’s summary of the suicide call.
This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
