A Victorian paramedic refused to provide CPR on a patient while her heart was still beating because there was bird poo on the ground next to her.
Scathing findings were handed down against paramedic Rick Clark for his actions three years ago, with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal finding he deprived the woman of any chance of survival.
When Mr Clark and his partner arrived just before 11am, the woman was conscious however making “incomprehensible sounds”.An Ambulance Victoria investigation found that the actions taken by Mr Clark in the first 27 minutes were “reasonable and appropriate”. The tribunal said that Mr Clark indicated the woman was flatlining, which was contrary to data from an electrocardiogram monitor which indicated she had a slower than normal heart rate.
Following the incident he was suspended by Ambulance Victoria and in early December 2020 resigned as a paramedic. “While mistakes can of course be made in the hectic and stressful situations that confront paramedics, often on a daily basis, Mr Clark’s lack of self-awareness and professional humility meant that critical opportunities to remedy the situation were lost,” the tribunal said in a judgment published this week.
Mr Clark’s lawyer said in a letter to the tribunal the decisions about the woman’s care were made jointly by other paramedics on the day and that he was not the most senior paramedic on the team.
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