IS IT TIME TO TEACH MEDICAL ETHICS TO EMT'S? AN ISRAELI CASE STUDY.

Abstract

In 2012, the Israeli actor and director Doron Nesher had a stroke and his family called the Israeli Emergency Service to take him to the hospital. On arrival, the medical crew encountered resistance by the patient who refused to receive treatment and to be accompanied to the hospital. After all of the crew's persuasion attempts that lasted about two hours failed, the crew left the scene without the patient, against his tearing wife's repeated requests. Hours later, the family, with the help of neighbors, took Mr. Nesher to the hospital in a private car, rolled up in a carpet. In this paper, I claim that the medical crew made an ethical error by not forcing the patient to go to the hospital. However, I do not blame the crew itself, but rather point my finger towards two institutional culprits: the Israeli Emergency Medical Service and the Israeli medical ethics education of paramedics and emergency medical technicians. I recommend that we start teaching medical ethics to paramedical professions.