Suing a Good Samaritan

Awesome. One more excuse to never help anybody. Good job, court system.

Ok, this finally shifted my viewpoint, I like Texas better than California. Having lived in both, it was actually a hard choice up until now. Texas has a law that states you ‘must’ stop and render assistance.

This is almost as ridiculous as NYC’s “Good Samaritan” stings where they planted wallets and purses in subway cars and arrested anyone who took them if they didn’t turn them in before leaving the station.

People suck. Well, some of them, anyway.

ontario has something like this too. I am trained in first aid and actually ended up in a situation where i witnessed somebody fall off a bike and hit their head. The man was totally confused and didn’t even realize what had happened and refused my help and refused even to sit down until he tried to leave and fell again.

I was legally liable if I had tried to help him beyond that.

I think her intent to help should be applauded and the result, while tragic, should not be punished. Now when something horrible happens to people you can pretty much count on them suing somebody. This only encourages people not to help each other out.

Leftist fools. Hell awaits.

So this woman has the potential of being sued b/c she was a good person trying to help.
I don’t care if she did make it worse…. unless she absolutely knew that what she was doing was going to make it worse, then we should be applauding her instead of condemning the act.

Stories like this sicken me.
We look the other way too much as it is, and things like this are only going to make it worse.

I’m a magnet for both medical emergencies and idiots– thankfully I’ve never been incapacitated; However, that hasn’t stopped “good samaritans” from trying to…

1) Stab me in the throat in an attempt to perform a trachectomy during a *mild* asthma attack.

2) Force-feed me boiling-hot water during a catastrophic asthma attack.

3) Purposefully flick that SAME boiling water in my face, in the hope that some of the magic boiling water would fall into my mouth and cure everything, BLINDING ME, during a MAJOR ASTHMA ATTACK.

If that woman is now a paraplegic due to some idiot rushing in and doing exactly what’s wrong? SUE THAT IDIOT.

Maybe people will think harder about WHAT to do and educate themselves rather than rushing in to be “helpful” without having a clue.

The third to last paragraph in the article explains it. She was pulled out of the car and left next to it (.i.e the car was not dangerous).

Of course it will probably be hard to prove that the spinal cord injury was caused by being pulled out the car and not by the crash itself. (Luckily she’s suing the driver as well)

@Brammi 17. Yes, I was going to mention an example like that as a hypothetical. Don’t know about 2 and 3 but 1 seems to happen occasionally (according to the yellow press)…must be in a movie somewhere.

That’s what you get for helping out. I’d just let her die.

ola et al, Reminds me of the end of the movie The Enemy Below. Curt Jurgens the German Uboat skipper says to Robert Mitchum the US destroyer skipper something about he was suprised Mitchum tossed him the rope that saved his life. Mitchum replies that the next time he wouldn’t. In one of my favorite scenes in a movie Jurgens looks Mitchum in the eye and says “I think you would”.

My point? People that want to help someone will do it and not let this court case change the way they are.

You know, moving someone with a neck injury can render them a paraplegic, and although this does not seem to be the case, I’m sure most of you would rather be in a car wreck for 5 more minutes than be paralized for life.

Oh, not to one-up this, but a really good friend of mine is in an even screwier situation for doing good.

As temperatures dropped in the PNW, he went with a small group and distributed thermal sleeping bags to the Seattle homeless population. Surely, when people asked for his name, he gave it. He is very compassionate and probably carried on conversations with many of them. Well, as it turns out, one of the homeless men decided to use his sleeping bag to hide the fact that he was sexually abusing a child with down’s syndrome. Guess who got a visit from a police detective? Guess who went under legal investigation for being complicit in a felonious act?

Things like this sicken me. Perhaps the woman who pulled her friend out did overreact, and perhaps it complicated an injury which was already sustained from the accident. But suing your friend for dragging you out of a wrecked car that she (allegedly) thought was going up in flames? Well, you find out who your friends really are, I guess. I’ll just stay away from that cesspool we call California, thank you very much.

She was not being a good samaritan, she was probably being a drunk panicking fool who made things worse.

1. she had possibly been drinking (the defendant was coming home from a night of revelry)

2. The car crashed into a light pole going 45 miles an hour (aka, the crash was not a “horrific” crash as those things go)

3. The defendant imagined she saw smoke (no one else did, btw), and perhaps due to her “night of revelry” panicked. Again, probably due to impaired judgment.

4. She couldn’t have been that afraid that the car would explode because after pulling the injured woman out of the car, the defendant dropped her RIGHT BY THE CAR so that if indeed there was going to be an explosion, the poor woman would still be dead.

This is not about good samaritans being punished or liberal California laws (not that liberal btw).

It’s rather a warning that, if you’ve been drinking (aka engaging in a night of revelry), be aware that you’re probably not the best person to respond to an emergency. You may overreact, read symptoms wrong, imagine that things are happening, panic, and could make injuries worse.

Unless they desperately need you, or you’re the only one there, leave the saving of lives up to sober people.

maybe people should read more into the case and see what really happened because the ruling here is giving CA the capability to redefine the good samatitan law. there is a fine line inbetween good samaritan and not having common sense… read up on the case. look over the police reports. this case is very substantial and going to help an innocent woman have justice due to dumb decisions made by a overreactive intoxicated “friend”.

MG, the light pole was going 45 miles an hour?
That may not be horrific, but certainly pretty unusual.

SparkS, civics 101: the Judicial branch’s job is to interpret laws, the Executive enforces them. Bonus points: The Legislative makes the laws.

Good people should not be punished for rendering good aid. The stupid and clueless, however should be no where near an emergency, especially when intoxicated; as it looks like was the case here.

I was not there so like some of you that judge the woman for helping another human being that if in her heart thought she was helping someone lets judge how drunk we think she was. I live in Ca. this lawsuit does not suprise me, they will sue for a hang nail. Being certified as a first responder go ahead and jump in and help, but be sure you don’t go beyond your scope of cert., my hat is off to this woman if in her heart she thought she was helping some one. Personally it will make me think before I help any one again.By the way I don’t drink, so no excuse for me. But after hearing some of these comments, I will sure think long and hard, before ever getting involved again. Including CPR assistance.