Being a Good Samaritan
By Albert B. Kelly
Not long ago, I heard the podcast “Radiolab” which was doing
a story about a Good Samaritan in Bath County, Kentucky. As for the details, it
involved two males and a female partying in a house together when one of the
guys apparently overdosed on opioids. Upon discovering the victim, his two companions
hesitated on calling paramedics because they were afraid that they would be
arrested and charged with drug-related offenses. Ultimately they did call 911 and
the overdose victim was revived. But it didn’t end there.
Apparently one of the EMT’s who responded to the call became
ill and passed out while transporting the overdose victim to the hospital. The
EMT was revived in route by his partner and a second ambulance transported this
EMT from wherever they stopped on to the hospital. As for what made the EMT
sick, the speculation was that the overdose victim had trace amounts of the
powerful synthetic opioid Fentanyl on his person that had inadvertently gotten
on the EMT’s skin which in turn might have caused his illness.
This type of scenario is possible since Fentanyl is 50 times
more powerful than morphine and its cousin Carfentanil, used to sedate elephants,
is 1,000 times more potent than morphine and today street heroin is routinely
laced with one or the other. Regardless of whether or not it happened in this instance,
there have been reported cases of first responders being overcome while
treating overdose victims.
That said, what the caller in Kentucky (i.e. the Good
Samaritan) didn’t know, was that Kentucky is among the states that adopted a
“Good Samaritan” law which basically holds, among other things, that someone
who calls 911 on behalf of a person they believe to be overdosing cannot be
charged with use of illegal or prescription drugs or drug paraphernalia.
What caught my attention and likely that of the podcast folks
was the fact that all three people, while not charged with use or possession of
illegal drugs or paraphernalia, were in fact prosecuted on numerous counts of endangering
the welfare of others i.e., paramedics, police, fireman, and a minor child who
had been in the home by potentially exposing them to whatever made the
paramedic ill.
While people can have their opinion about the three involved
in this incident and others like them, such charges seemed like law
enforcement’s “work-around” to a law they didn’t agree with, but one that’s
intended to encourage people to call for help rather than just letting someone
die of an overdose because of fears criminal prosecution. What happened in
Kentucky had me wondering about the laws in our own state.
New Jersey has several Good Samaritan laws that deal with
providing help in an emergency. In general, a person who acts in good faith to give
emergency help is immune from civil liability. As for what constitutes “good
faith”, the courts say it’s basically anything other than intentionally causing
harm or committing gross negligence. This means that people (including doctors
and first responders) are able to provide help at an accident scene or in emergency
situations without fear of being sued by victims or their families.
New Jersey law also specifically deals with drug overdoses
through the Overdose Prevention Act. This law encourages people to call 911 if
they think a person is overdosing on illegal or prescription drugs. This
matters, because as often as not, the addicted use drugs in the presence of
others including drug users. No one should die because someone is afraid to
call 911 for fear of getting busted. The person who acts in good faith to get medical
help for themselves or someone else for a drug overdose won’t be arrested or
prosecuted for using a controlled substance. But any “work-arounds” would defeat
the spirit of this law.
There are no doubt those with zero sympathy for overdose
victims who see the world as better off with one less addict. Maybe this makes
sense if one insists that addiction is a moral failure even though medical
science has demonstrated that addiction is an illness worthy of treatment rather
than a character flaw to be punished and scorned.
Yet, regardless of what any one of us thinks, we’re still
talking about someone’s daughter, son, mother, father, sister, or brother and
that should move us to act because if it doesn’t, then I’m not sure what will. So
here’s to the Good Samaritans and the laws that protect them.