A US paramedic has been suspended without pay after stopping his ambulance to try and save the life of a choking girl without prior authorisation.
Qwasie Reid, an Emergency Medical Technician, was transporting an elderly patient from a nursing home to a doctor’s appointment in New York, when a ‘frantic man’ near a school in Brooklyn urged him to help save the life of a choking student.
Mr Reid ignored his partner’s advice to stay in the ambulance, and instead rushed to help the seven-year-old, who had started choking on a sandwich.
WABC-TV reports that Mr Reid ‘cleared out the little girl’s mouth, put an oxygen mask on her, used a defibrillator and started CPR.’
Mr Reid also told the TV station how little Noelia Echavarria was ‘blue in the face and lips’ when he first arrived, a as no one had administered first aid.
But he has now been suspended without pay by employers Assist Ambulance Company – as the firm forbids paramedics from making unauthorised stops.
Speaking to DNAInfo, Mr Reid said he would ‘do it again’, even if he risked being fired.
‘As an EMT, I don’t care about your money’, he said.
‘There was a child choking. I’m worried about them firing me, but I did a good deed. I just feel like I’m being penalised for something and I haven’t done anything wrong.
Tragically, Noelie died in hospital on 23 October after doctors turned off life support.
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