On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:22:36 GMT, "Alex" wrote:

--SNIP for brevity-
I heard of this case where the guy
gave another person CPR after they collapsed from heart attack and
accidently broke a rib. The person lived and sued the guy for breaking
the rib

Folks have tried that, however almost all states have good smaritan laws
these days, and you are protected. Providing you have CPR training.

Well the Good Samaritan laws are designed to cover people with
training, but that doesn't mean that the people without training are
in more trouble.

Rather, it was the other way around. If you dind't know anything or
all you knew about cpr was from a half page flier, you were judged as
someone who doesn't know anything, and even if you did things badly,
you weren't liable (unless you were trying to hurt someone.)

Doctors otoh had I think in a few cases been held to the standard of
doctors. They had to do things right, to the same standard they would
be required to use in a hospital (minus the equipment). They were the
ones who were afraid to help, because some (and I'm sure in cases
where there was a bad result, like the patient died) doctors were
successfully sued, and other doctors were afraid of that . The ones
sued had been doing their best probably, but a jury thought somehow
that wasn't good enough. Or they weren't doing their best, but doctors
who read the paper were sure they had been.

But if the average Joe tries to help someone, he is and was judged
according to hisown level of competence. Was he negligent even
compared to what HE could have done. For example, did he run up to
help the guy, and everyone thought he was helping and left, and then
he decided, No I don't have time after all and he left the guy alone..
I'm not sure now, but I think a laymen who didn't even act like a
layman might be liable, if there were other people there who might
have done a better job, and somehow he got them to rely on HIM.

And I think a doctor would be liable under such an extreme scenario
too. Apparently there were many good-hearted (normal) doctors who
really wanted to help before and were for good reason afraid of
multi-million dollar suits if they didn't get it right.

Most courts, if not the plantiffs, realize that the person needing CPR was
dying. Broken rib is a small price to pay.

Darn right.

Of course on tv, they rarely check if the person needs cpr to begin
with. One is supposed to check for faint breathing, and for a faint
pulse before trying to supplement those things. OTOH, I've never been
able to find my pulse.

BTW I'd go with Thorsen or Mechanics Choice. Available at Wally World or
local discount parts houses. Both have lifetime warranty against breakage,
so if the neighbor brings it back busted, you can get a replacement.

-alex


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