Firefighters performing intubations on a recently deceased patient — inserting a tube-like device into their throat — isn’t standard practice in Whatcom County or elsewhere in Washington state.
Intubation is a medical procedure aimed at helping a patient breathe, a treatment usually performed in the field when a patient’s heart has stopped.
But when a patient dies in the care of firefighters, or is dead when firefighters arrive, what started as a medical emergency becomes a case for police or the medical examiner, according to local fire department officials and members of the Whatcom County EMS and Trauma Care Council interviewed by The Bellingham Herald this week.
“If the patient is deceased at the scene, it becomes a law enforcement issue,” said Chief Jerry DeBruin of Whatcom County Fire District 14 in the Sumas area, who heads the EMS Council’s education committee.