Paramedic cleared of wrongdoing
DHS report: Allegations were unsubstantiated

The Arizona Department of Health Services has cleared Lake Havasu City Firefighter Paramedic Joe Tobin of any wrongdoing during his handling of 72-year-old patient Terri Taylor in October 2007.

The DHS report released Saturday stated that all allegations against Tobin were unsubstantiated.

The allegations came to light after an investigation by City Manager Richard Kaffenberger accused Tobin of improperly handling the administration of medical protocols to Taylor. Dennis Wilson, a city investigator and former Captain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was appointed by Kaffenberger to conduct the investigation.

Tobin was accused of improperly administering shock treatment to Taylor while she was in cardiac arrest, falsifying documents that reported the time and the sequence in which two medications were administered to Taylor. Tobin was also accused of destroying early drafts of Taylor’s medical report, which would have identified he had falsified the time and sequence in which treatment was administered to Taylor.

The DHS report found Tobin had not deviated from regional protocols and care algorithms and had not administered shock treatment to Taylor while she was in cardiac arrest. DHS determined Tobin had completed hand-written documentation indicating the procedure he followed upon arrival at the Taylor home.

DHS determined Tobin had not falsified the time and sequence in which the two medications were administered in his report, and the paramedic had only prepared revisions of his initial documentation notes of the incident prior to submitting the formal report to the Havasu Regional Medical Center.

Tobin had refuted all three allegations, which were brought about by former River Medical Paramedic Peggy Gould, from the beginning, and now says the fact that Wilson’s investigation came five to six months after the incident occurred his final determination couldn’t possibly have been complete. Tobin and Mark Beals, Vice-President of the Lake Havasu City Firefighters Association, both said many of the documents could not have been available to Wilson due to the Health Information Privacy Act (HIPA), something Dr. Debra Gulyanics, Medical Director at Havasu Regional has been saying all along.

Gulyanics said HIPA laws even prevent family members in some circumstances from receiving information on their loved one. She argued Wilson could not obtain the information he needed, so he simply concluded the hospital and paramedics were concealing it. This allowed Wilson to make his own determination based solely upon Gould’s version of the incident.

“He had one side of the story,” Gulyanics said. “He was at the liberty to take a machine gun and take pothole shots at us, and I am really upset about him torpedoing the paramedics.”

Beals and Gulyanics both wondered how Wilson could conduct an investigation into the medical procedures of paramedics when he didn’t understand what the procedures were.

Gulyanics also said Wilson should have come to her for the information about the procedures instead of going to the paramedics, and he did not.

She and Beals both said Wilson went to the paramedics and sort of blindsided them without scheduling appointments. Beals feels was done to intimidate the paramedics.

Kaffenberger defended Wilson’s investigation, stating DHS found what they found, and Wilson found what he found. Kaffenberger said he has accepted Wilson’s findings, because the findings were based upon what Tobin and the other paramedics involved had said. He plans on continuing to look into how each of the city departments can allow for better communication procedures.

Tobin and Beals believe the entire medical system in Lake Havasu City was dragged through the mud, due to the controversy, and they are wondering why. They believe Kaffenberger had the right to look into the allegations, because it was his job, but they think the investigation was conducted in a hostile and bias manner.

They also believe the media led the public to believe the paramedics killed Taylor, which was not the case. Beals pointed out, Taylor was not breathing when the paramedics arrived at her home. When she arrived at the hospital, she had a heartbeat. Taylor died two days later at a Las Vegas hospital, due to causes unrelated to the treatment administered by paramedics.

Regardless, Tobin and Beals feel it is now time for the Fire Department to rebuild the community’s trust. They believe the findings vindicate all parties involved and show the community that the paramedics were simply doing their jobs according to procedure and protocol.

“For us to be successful, we have to have the public’s trust,” Beals said. “We would like the public to know we continue to provide a professional service, and we hold their trust sacred.”

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