Meet Qwasi Reid, an EMT who works for a private ambulance company in New York City who says he was suspended by his employer because he attempted to save a seven-year-old girl who was choking at her school in Brooklyn:
Wrap your head around this one… Our country is literally insane. https://t.co/oT5UvTQMct
— Jasen August +++ (@JasenAugust) October 29, 2015
No one at the girl’s school was rendering aid and Reid was flagged down as he drove by. His company’s policy, however, is that an EMT is not allowed to stop unless called, thus the suspension.
Fox News reports:
A heroic New York EMT who tried in vain last week to save a 7-year-old school girl choking on her lunch said he was suspended because it is against company policy to make a stop without being called.
Qwasi Reid, who works for Assist Ambulance, was transporting a nursing home patient last Wednesday with his partner when he said they were flagged down at a red light by a frantic man who told them that a student was choking. Reid said his partner, who was not reprimanded by the company, told the man they already had a patient and there was nothing they could do.
Reid, who has driven ambulances for four years, said he knew the choking girl took a priority over the transport, and against his partner’s urging, jumped out of the ambulance’s back door and administered first aid to the girl, who he said had already turned blue. No one at the school was rendering first aid, he said.
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Tragically, the little girl in bad shape and “basically brain dead.” Her family is searching for answers as to why no one at the school had attempted to save her before Reid arrived on the scene:
Unacceptable. Not one CPR certified staff at that school? She choked for 5 minutes!? UNACCEPTABLE. #NoeliaEchavarria https://t.co/1WnAcNax8N
— antisocial°pessimist (@xstumbleduponx) October 28, 2015
Noelia-Lisa Echavarria's family wants to know what really happened to her at school last Wednesday. https://t.co/2w0TXqfFqb
— CarrollGardens Patch (@CarrollGPatch) October 27, 2015
God Bless Noelia Echavarria ????
— ??♀️ (@BombShell_Nel) October 28, 2015
An awful story all the way around. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone struck by this tragedy.
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