04-06-2018, 07:55 AM
(04-06-2018, 07:38 AM)Pheidippides Wrote:(04-05-2018, 10:52 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Is this a serious argument that somehow the lives of people outside the party are more worthy of emergency services than those within?
Yes, EMS has a duty to serve everyone in need, but I think the intent of the comment was that intentionally drinking yourself into a coma is completely preventable event where as someone randomly getting hit by a car or having a heart attack is largely unpreventable. Someone having a bad day and getting hit by a car shouldn't have to die at the expense of someone else's selfish and law breaking choices.
It is the same reason we teach children not to call 9-1-1 unless it is a true emergency - it ties up resources that can be properly used elsewhere.
That's a rabbit hole we don't want to go down. That person with the heart attack had McDonald for supper last night and is a smoker. The person hit by the car was on their phone and not wearing bright and reflective clothing. We triage based on need and in dire situations, prognosis, not based on virtue or moral deficiency.