Good Samaritan Law

[hismikeness]

I will be completing First Aid training for work today. I did CPR and AED yesterday. The Good Samaritan Law came up a bunch of times, and to me, it is a shame that this law even has to exist.

Good Samaritan laws are laws or acts protecting those who choose to serve and tend to others who are injured or ill.

I can't imagine being injured, have someone provide care for me, have it go wrong, and then sue them. The instructor recited stories of people being sued because they tended to a wound which had the audacity to get infected later. I guess I can see someone getting sued if there was gross negligence or if they tried to perform, for example, a field surgery, without the proper training. But someone helping in good faith doesn't deserve to be sued for that.

To me, the part that is a shame, is that without those laws in place, I would be very hesitant to help someone in need at the risk of being sued. I guess I'm glad they're in place, but it's too bad they exist at all.

For the non US members, are there laws as such in your neck of the woods? For the lawyers among us... what are your opinions, if any?

[Tank]

There are Good Samaritan laws in Europe but they are almost the exact opposite of the American version. In most of Europe you are commuting an offence if you DON'T help a person. In the UK no such laws exist either way. I have never heard of somebody being sued either for or withholding help. However the first rule of first aid training in the UK is don't put yourself in harms way to help somebody if you can possibly help it. But it's lest to the individual to make that assessment. There have been a very, very limited number of criticism of the police for not attempting to rescue people. However when you get past the headlines and read the details all cases have been examples of drownings where the victim has been in the water or under the ice for at least an hour.

EDIT: One of the charges that the paparazzi who were involved in the death of Princess Diana could have faced was failing to stop and render assistance under the French Good Samaritan law.

[DirtyLeo]

I work in an American company and travel regularly there for work and leisure so I consider myself familiar with your wide-spread I'll-sue-your-ass approach (didn't want to sound too harsh by saying "culture") but it never ceases to amaze me!

[rawrdog822]

Ya, I heard about that too when I went for my CPR classes.  It's kind of ridiculous.  There was this case a while back where a woman's mother had a heart attack, and the EMTs had to use a defibrillator to keep her alive.  The woman sued for having to watch her mother be resuscitated in front of her.  Sucks.

[Tank]

I did the first aid course where I worked mainly so that if one of my kids was in trouble I would know what to do. A lady collapsed at work from what turned out to be a mild stroke but she stopped breathing twice and I had to administer resuscitation each time. I was fine while it was all going on but once she was in the ambulance I sat down and shook like a leaf! She lives near us and I occasionally see here when out shopping. I get a real kick out of knowing what I did definitely saved her life. A mate of mine had a similar thing happen in a night club when he was on holiday and a woman passed out on the dance floor. Being able to do CPR is something every adult should be able to do as one never, ever knows when it will be needed. My son in law is a nurse and he had to carry out the hymlic manouver on my wife. Thing was she only had a towel on at the time and that fell off! He has mixed feelings about being reminded of the incident  

[BadPoison]

It's been a long time since boy scouts and my last CPR training. The lady and I should propbably take a refresher course.