This is very good advice, especially if someone has taken drugs. Please tell us. The medicine I give for chest pain can kill someone if they’re having that pain from doing a ton of cocaine and not a possible heart attack.

After the first time someone went into cardiac arrest after I started treating them after telling me they didn’t use any drugs or alcohol today - I followed up found out he survived but had in fact taken a ton of cocaine today, I’ve changed my wording to “Have you taken any drugs or alcohol recently? It’s okay if you have I’m not a cop but if you have it changes which medicine I can safely give you.”

[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's so wild the wrong ideas that float around about cops and medical personnel. "If you're a cop you have to tell me" and "if I tell them I did drugs they have to tell the cops"

I really do tell all the interesting people in my life "tell cops nothing, medics everything" and it's saved a few butts. My mom is the one who initially told me that. She doesn't necessarily approve of drug use, but made it clear to us growing up that if we ever did something and had to go to the doctor, we needed to tell them everything, and they would always keep our secret, but always lie about it to the cops if they were involved. I love my mom. Lol. She's awesome.

[–] bownage@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

Based mom 🙏