Now, the California Supreme Court has ruled that a woman who pulled a co-worker from a car wrapped around a telephone pole is not immune from civil liability. Her co-worker is suing her for additional injuries that were possibly inflicted when she was pulled out of the vehicle that was leaking fluid and smoking.

What a terrible tragedy. Alexandra Van Horn is now a paraplegic after the 2004 accident on Halloween night and her co-worker, Lisa Torti has to live day to day with the thought that she may have made the wrong decision pulling Van Horn out of the vehicle.

Morrissey over at Hot Air has more.

Torti and Van Horn traveled in separate cars, and the driver of Van Horn’s car ran into a light pole at 45 MPH. Torti testified that she saw smoke and liquid coming from the car and thought the vehicle would explode, trapping Van Horn. She rushed to pull her co-worker from the car, and Van Horn alleges that Torti aggravated a broken vertebra that damaged her spinal cord. She sued Torti (and the driver) for causing her paralysis.

Again, this was an accident and I do not think that Torti meant to cause additional harm to Van Horn. The state Supreme Courts decision is worrisome to me. What would you do if you were in California and this happened to you?

If you did nothing and the car went up in flames, you could be sued. Totri did something, and she was sued. Could you make the decision – especially to move a friend – if you had only seconds to act?

I’ve been in a similar situations three times. The first time a woman was hit by a car in the street (Route 44 in Canton) and she was on the ground in the middle of the first westbound lane of traffic. At the time, traffic was heavy and at a dead stop after the accident. It was daylight. The woman was probably OK, but I took the simple precaution to monitor her airway, breathing and circulation and stabilize her neck while we waited about three or four minutes for police and EMS to arrive.

If traffic was light and moving fast, first responders – without a backboard – would need to make the quick decision to move her if she or the first responders were in danger of getting hit again. If it was dark, the situation would quickly escalate to “really serious.”

What would you do?

The second and third situations happened in the Bahamas. In both instances, the decision was made to leave the patient in the vehicle, monitor ABCs, stabilize the neck and wait for emergency teams. Let’s just say back in 1999 in the Bahamas, you might be waiting for awhile. Both accidents were one car wrecks that left passengers in rough shape, and it took more than 30 minutes for rescue personnel to arrive.

One of the accidents happened right in front of our place of business in a suburban area. We heard the car hit the tree head-on, no breaks. The woman in the car was not wearing a seat belt and ended up wedged between the dash and the seat. With fire extinguishers on hand and no smoke or fire, we kept her put and stabilized the neck.

After an additional 15 to 20 minutes of rescue teams messing with trying to get her out, she got pretty damn pissed off and extracted herself. At least she had a neck collar on by that time.

If there was a fire, what would you do?

If you’re in California, you might want to think about having the victim sign a liability release prior to becoming your patient.

Here’s a link to the full LA Times piece. I’m not sure Torti had any training, and I’m not sure if she did the right thing, but court actions like this provide an opportunity to promote first responder training.

If you get the chance take a first aid course, CPR course, and get AED training – the things are everywhere nowadays – and stay up-to-date with your training. It takes about 16 hours for the original training (all three programs) and refresher programs can be done in less than half that time.

With the training, you can make the decision to act – or not – with some knowledge and training behind you.