Police shot man with 50,000-volt Taser after he suffered epileptic fit in gym

reply to post by ReVoLuTiOn76


When a person is having a seizure, you never, ever attempt to subdue them...it just makes the seizure last longer...and it doesnt matter how ripped the guy is either...you wait for the seizure to run its course.

my god, even a police officer with a basic understanding of first aid should know that a person suffering an epileptic fit will lose control of their body, leading to the possibility of wildly kicking and punching, biting, scratching, yelling to go along with the shaking and thrashing of the body.

It is completly unacceptable that the ambulance officers have attempted to restrain the man, again, you never restrain a person having a seizure unless they are in a position to cause danger to themselves or others.

I'm all for tasers as a viable option to restrain a suspect, but it seems that there are way to many police officers out there who a willing to just taser someone because its easier than doing their job properly

Over the 30 years i worked as a EMT i ran into a number of people having epileptic seizures that did not want medical help from EMT-P or anyone else.

These people knew there seizures were not life threatening and would pass quickly.

The problem is someone always calls the paramedics.

Then in many cases the person having the seizure ends up with a large bill from the paramedic company or if its a city paramedic ambulance unit from the city.

Many of these bills run over $800 and many of these people are on disability and may only get $600 to 800 a month to live on and do not have the money to pay these unneeded bills.

I even had this happen to me.
I had something fly up from a fan blade when working on my truck and put a 2 inch laceration on my jaw.
No big problem i went in my house and stopped the bleeding and got some 4 by 4s from my EMT kit and changed out of my bloody shirt.

As i walked to my truck to drive to the VA hospital to get it stitched up a passing sheriffs officer saw me and stopped me and called the local ambulance.

It took me 30 minutes to get away from the sheriffs officer and to be able to drive my self to the doctor.
The funny part was I was a member of the same volunteer fire/EMT department.and the EMT that was on call was a friend.
All he did was check my blood pressure (to make sure i was not going into shock)and tell the sheriffs officer that i had the right to refuse transport. (this EMT was also a sheriffs officer in the next door county.)

In my case the ambulance ride would not have cost me anything but the hospital would have charged me over $800 just to get a few stitches.
by driving my self to the VA it cost me nothing to get stitched up.

The prices are just unreasonable. I got in a wreck the other day. I was good enough to leave on my own. I don't have any insurance and I found out that the person that hit me didn't have any auto insurance. Ten years ago I got into a fight with a 2000# bull. I got a ride in an ambulance to the hospital for $400, they took a few x rays and a ct scan and nothing else to me for $5000. They just gave me a neck brace and told me to wear that and that was all.

Don't people know you are not supposed to touch or attempt restraint on those suffering an imminent seizure? Surely the EMT should be trained in this knowledge before being let out into the field?

I hope that officer gets discharged just for being a dumbass.

Well before we start saying this was wrong, we should get some facts

Where did he have the fit, if close to heavy weights you can understand them trying to get him outa harms way

As for the taser, well the main question is how big was this guy, if he was a monster you can sorta understand as he could have cause major harm, though if he was the average joe in the gym why did the officers not use physical restraints and even ask one or two of the bigger guys in the gym to help out

reply to post by ReVoLuTiOn76


If I were your mother, I for one would be ashamed, if I read what you posted on this thread. To state the gentleman in question deserved to be tasered, proves to me you have no clue what so ever, with regards to epilepsy. Or you are lying, knowing what it is like for someone to have seizures. How would you feel if that was your mother, whom the police tasered, would you be stating oh she deserved it?

Would you state the same thing, but no you accuse the gentleman of taken steroids without prove, you are just making assumptions, which to me is quite ignorant.

Maybe you should educate yourself on epilepsy before pointing the finger and stating oh he deserved it!

I hope he takes those police officers to the cleaners, they could have cause more damage, to this individual.

[edit on 14-4-2010 by Laurauk]

reply to post by bluedrake


Have you witnessed an individual taken seizures, have you witnessed what happens after individuals come out off seizures?

If you have not then you have no clue what you are talking about.

reply to post by Laurauk


Agreed, all that im saying is that i know how big some guys get at the gyms and what sort of damage they can cause and that no one could stop that brute power, also the gym are full of heavy dangerous equipment..

So while i do agree that its wrong, im just saying its a pity we dont know all the facts

Originally posted by Laurauk
reply to post by bluedrake

 

Have you witnessed an individual taken seizures, have you witnessed what happens after individuals come out off seizures?

No.

Can you enlighten us?

They're hiring some real idiots these days(law enforcement). What's up with the shaved heads? All the cops I see shave their heads...WTF?

It seems to have slipped a few people's attention that this happened in Greater Manchester, England, so issues such as Paramedic bills are not issues at all.

Also, here in the UK to even get into the police force academies, you have to go through a fairly rigorous multi step test programme, which does in fact include intelligence tests (although you wouldn't think so ). That's before you even start the training course.

As for this case, I would think that regardless of the situation, it would be completely stupid and potentially lethal to taser someone with epilepsy at all, never mind after they've just had a seizure!!

Electrical imbalance in the brain + 50,000V = Stupidsville!

Originally posted by C0bzz

Originally posted by Laurauk
reply to post by bluedrake

 

Have you witnessed an individual taken seizures, have you witnessed what happens after individuals come out off seizures?

No.

Can you enlighten us?

He probably can't ,but I can. Most people who have seizures are disoriented during and after a seizure. There are several different kind of seizure. Grand Mal,Petit Mal etc. Anytime someone is having a seizure and is in danger, approach from behind and grab them and take them down to the ground. GENTLY! Those police officers need to be jailed. I am only 5'3 and my brother is 6'+ and if I can take him down and prevent him from harming himself or others during his seizure, what does that say about those weak-assed cowardly cops?

Originally posted by dampnickers
Answer: They would have given the man a clear area, and kept the peace. The wouldn't have given him a potentially lethal shock of electricity.

But, then they would be late for their coffee and donut break. Can't have that.

In 20 years people are going to find it normal that police shoot someone for looking badly at them.

When we do come at this stage in our life i will go to the other side and leave this pathetic world behind. We have lost our values we are deranged psychotic animals with only a remembrence of our civility.

We fight we kill we torture and yet we live normal lives without the pain of empathy. If someone tries to justify things like this then what he is doing is killing our natural instinct in rising up when unjustice is present.

People this is wrong no mather what they tell you, find your humanity and act upon it.

Originally posted by ReVoLuTiOn76
Look at it this way. This guy was at the gym and had a seizure. He was probably ripped and on creatine or steroids. Normal restraining methods wouldn't be efficient enough to properly subdue this man.

Also don't think I always side with the cops. Normally I'd be on your side, but this time I do not see any wrong doing.

"Probably ripped and on creatine or steroids".

And that's the only logical reason you have for why the police decided to taser this guy - because he might've/could've/would've been your commonplace gym stereotype so he was physically unrestrainable.



I love ATS. I really do!

Has *anyone* seen what happens to people post-seizure? I have. Not always the same. Some people are very calm and subdued. Some are panicky and paranoid. Others come about in a violent way - their minds unsure as to where there are, who they are or who YOU are.

To think someone coming out of a seizure will always be calm and quiet is... well, a very poor assumption.

[edit on 14-4-2010 by noonebutme]

Originally posted by ReVoLuTiOn76
reply to post by angrymomma

 

Look at it this way. This guy was at the gym and had a seizure. He was probably ripped and on creatine or steroids. Normal restraining methods wouldn't be efficient enough to properly subdue this man.

Also don't think I always side with the cops. Normally I'd be on your side, but this time I do not see any wrong doing.

Even if you don't know anything about grand mall seizures, the emergency team, including the police all do, its in their training. And you don't taser people who are having them, though they may be punching or biting. You have to restrain them so they don't bite their tongues off or your fingers, in a way that doesnt harm them in the least..

The police officer should be facing charges. He's a part of an emergency team!

Originally posted by colloredbrothers
In 20 years people are going to find it normal that police shoot someone for looking badly at them.

They will chuff it off as the officer "following protocol" and that he was "obeying the use of force policy".

reply to post by ReVoLuTiOn76


That is a terrible assumption. The man had a seizure. Do you actually think there would even be an investigation if there were 'roids in his system? He was in the hospital for two weeks, they would have found out. Think about it.

Pure evil!

In their soul, every human knows right from wrong. This is wrong.

I think it's funny to see people on ATS justifying that the police were right to Taser this man! That shows how far our society has gone to the dark side.
We are the evil empire of Star Wars. Why do you think Lucas made the movie - he was trying to wake us up.

They could have held the man down, they knew he was having a medical issue. These psycho cops love to play with their new toy and they will use any excuse to pull the trigger. This is the new world order. The new world order will easily find enough psychos to do whatever evil deeds they want to do with the American people. It's sad and why everybody on ATS must spend all their time exposing the new world order's evil. A mass awakening is the ONLY thing that can save this planet from the new world order. If you haven't told somebody about the new world order in the last 24 hours, then you need to do more. We can change the world if everybody does something every day. Quit lying to yourself. If you aren't teaching new people about the new world order every week, then you are not doing what you can to save this planet. Never stop spreading the truth! The new world order hates it when you ignore their disinfo agents on ATS and instead just teach new people about the evil of the new world order every day! They can't stop you!