[pct-l] Good Samaritan Acts

Sat Jan 24 18:06:25 CST 2009

Good Samaritan Acts vary by state. But in most cases they do NOT apply to
career (volunteer or paid) people with any responsibility to provide care
during their normal course of duty. For example a doctor, EMT, paramedic,
lifeguard, hired group leader or trail guide, ranger, trail maintenance
boss, etc. while at work.  If they are not at their place of "work" (for
example in other state) and voluntarily (and with no duty to act) offer
assistance they are still expected to act based upon and restricted to their
training. So a doctor should know better and so should an EMT than to move
an injured victim without certain precautions, for example; So should ANYONE
trained in first aid! The same probably applies to "dispensing pills"
without a prescription, even out on the trail. Just because you claim you
just simply offered the pills IF they wanted them doesn't completely absolve
you. Necessarily.

Every state has a similar but not identically worded statute that protects
such actors from civil liability. But it's not absolute. That's the key:
Your actions generally must be within your training, and you must be acting
as any lay person with no duty to act based in statute, regulation, or job
description, and you must act in good faith with prudent &
reasonableactions like any other reasonable prudent person would do in
a similar
situation.
For the car accident scenario, would a reasonable untrained lay person yank
someone out (possibly inadvertently causing harm)? Perhaps. What if they
reasonably thought it was about to explode? Sounds reasonable. But what if
no reasonable person should have believed it was about to explode? Would
their actions still be protected? A judge or jury could decide either way.
As they say, the devil's in the details!

Just because you wanted to help, if you did something unreasonable, or that
most normal people think is beyond absurd and obviously inappropriate, you
may not be protected from civil suit. In the CA car crash case apparently
the courts said let's hear the details in court and let a judge (or jury)
decide if it was reasonable.

As for helping someone injured or sick on the trail by offering them your
personal pills you may be able to convince a court (jury, judge) that you
should be covered and protected from liability IF they're over the counter
pills. You may also be covered from CIVIL LIABILITY (lawsuit) even if the
pills were prescription and perhaps even controlled substances. But that's
not what we were talking about. We were talking about the fact that merely
possessing controlled substances or ANY pills NO LONGER in their original
prescription pill bottle is a crime in most states. (to prevent
drug trafficking and any confusion over what the med is). Also, simply
handing someone a pill or offering it to a victim without a doctor's
prescription may be criminal.  (In addition you may cause harm due to side
effects, allergic reaction, mistreatment of wrongly diagnosed condition -
since you're not a doctor. For these you could potentially be charged with a
crime. Or sued in civil court by the family or the victim you tried to help
if it goes badly.)

Good Samaritan laws may NOT protect you if you can't convince a judge or
jury what you did was reasonable or that normal people would think so. Some
states offer broad protection in the wording of their law, others do not.
 In some states (VT, I believe) you are actually required to stop and offer
assistance at any emergency. This assistance might simply be to call 911 or
offer a blanket at a roadside car accident. You don't have to place yourself
at risk or perform roadside surgery or CPR necessarily. But you must do
something to help or you could be civilly ?or criminally charged!)

In summary, don't get paranoid!!! The Good Samaritan Acts of all 50
statesareintended for just what we're discussing. Someone who
voluntarily steps
forward & acts in good faith to help someone is generally relatively
protected from civil liability (law suits). Doctors, nurses, lifeguards,
EMTs, police officers, group leaders/instructors, guides, etc, at "work"
 (paid or not) are held to a higher standard - and they should be - they're
job is to know what to do and do it correctly!

Please feel free to help me!!

FedEx

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 11:06 PM, R N <pinoakrd at msn.com> wrote:

>
> As I have been following this thread - I thought people are protected under
> 'Good Samaritan' laws if care given was reasonable, within one's scope of
> skill, and with good intention.
>
> I looked it up and found some more info:
> http://firstaid.about.com/od/medicallegal/qt/goodsam.htm
>
> Ronda
>
> To: BackpackingLight at yahoogroups.com <BackpackingLight%40yahoogroups.com>
> From: eric at badtux.com <eric%40badtux.com>
> Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:22:37 +0000
> Subject: [BackpackingLight] Re: pills for first aid kit (Cautions)
>
>
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