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GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS

© Kathleen Newton

Many of the questions that are most frequently asked by my students when I teach CPR have to do with legal considerations when providing emergency care and first aid. Many people are afraid to care for someone they don't know because they're worried about being sued. In this day and age when lawsuits are prevalent, it's a justified concern. However, most states have specific laws, called "Good Samaritan" laws, that protect people who administer first aid from being sued. While the laws may vary from state to state, the general ideas and guidelines are the same:

*The person providing first aid must not deliberately cause further harm to the victim. Breaking ribs during CPR is NOT deliberately causing further harm.

*The person providing first aid must offer and provide care only up to the level and extent he/she is trained and qualified.

*The person providing first aid must obtain consent from the victim before giving care. And injured person has the right to refuse care, no matter how seriously he/she is injured. In the event of a minor child, consent for care must be obtained from the child's parent or guardian. There are only two exceptions where obtaining consent is not necessary. In the event that the victim is unconscious, consent is implied, meaning if the victim knew his/her condition, he/she would want you to provide care. In the case of a minor child, conscious or unconscious, without a parent or guardian present, consent from the absent parent or guardian is implied.

It's important to remember that, in most states, no bystander is required to provide care in an emergency. As a matter of fact, if a doctor in a shopping mall witnessed a stranger having a heart attack, he/she could choose to NOT provide care (although I certainly wouldn't want that doctor as my health care provider). However, if you do decide to provide emergency care, you do have a responsibility to continue caring for the victim until:

*The victim no longer requires care.

*Someone else arrives on the scene that is qualified to provide emergency care.

*You are physically unable to continue providing care.

As with most laws, the actual wording of the edict can be somewhat difficult to understand. Over the next few months, I'll give you a brief interpretation of each state's, and Canada's, Good Samaritan statutes. Hopefully, this will help you to understand your state's laws, as well as demonstrate the differences in laws from state to state. Be sure to look at the end of each week's article for the Good Samaritan Law of the Week!

The copyright of the article GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS in First Aid is owned by Kathleen Newton. Permission to republish GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.