41-year-old Simon Burgess was feeding swans in a shallow pond in Walpole Park in Gosport, England last year when he suffered an epileptic seizure and fell unconscious into the water. Twenty-five emergency personnel arrived on scene but Burgess remained floating face down, twenty-five feet from shore, for over half an hour after the first responders arrived.
The Daily Mail reports on the results of the official inquest:
Even though they could all swim, the first fire crew to arrive hadn’t been ‘trained’ to enter water higher than ankle-deep. Instead they waited for ‘specialists’ to arrive to retrieve his body. They had decided Mr Burgess must surely be dead because he had been in the water for ten minutes. When a policeman decided to go in anyway, he was ordered not to. A paramedic was also told not to enter the water because he didn’t have the right ‘protective’ clothing and might be in breach of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992.
Daily Mail reporter Nick Constable later waded out to the spot and found that “at no point did the depth rise higher than 3½ ft, and at no point did I feel as if I was in the remotest danger.”
Just so hard to believe what a gong show they turned it into , to not rescue someone in 3 ft of water. They had’nt been “trained” to enter water higher than their ankles. Never had a bath I guess. The sun has truly set on the British Empire.
PeterJ – or to extend a bit, do these “emergency” personel never go swimming at a public pool? I think most pools are 3ft deep at a minimum.
All of those cowards should have to stand up at a press conference or something similar and state unequivocally that they believe with all their heart that letting the man die was the right thing to do. They should also state that since being hired to the emergency services they have never entered water deeper than what their training has allowed regardless of whether they were on or off duty.
I also found it funny that given a very rough idea of the time the victim was in the water they were able to make a snap decision that he was already dead. When I took first aid training the line was always “you can not assess death unless the head is separated from the body”.
No mention in the story if they would have prevented/arrested a civilian for trying to get to the man, but I bet they would have.
Wrong again Peter Singer.
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/199704–.htm
MC- but the civilian could simply flee through the pond, where the cops can’t go. (standing in knee deep water) “come get me then!” Cops – “curses, foiled again. Call the navy.”
Just a thought…if you’re gonna commit suicide, take a lawyer with you.
Okay, I said it..so what?
Not the plot for the next Dirty Harry movie, that.
England is truly f–ked.
“About a dozen spectators watched as the individual died, not of injuries sustained in the crash, but from hypothermia.
Trained or not, people are stupid or not caring enough. “Good Samaritan’s” must have a bad rap sheet these days.”
2 things:
– good samaritans are liable to get sued if things go wrong during or after their attempts
– good samaritans have been faced with paying the medical bills of those they saved when the patient turned out to have no insurance
It’s got to the point where volunteer first aid training now includes warnings to do nothing more serious than apply a bandaid and call an ambulance, to avoid liability issues.