Emergency medics who used antivenom to save the life of a man bitten by a snake in Kentucky this year now face a hearing for possibly violating state policy.
In May, Jim Harrison, a venom extractor at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade was bitten by a venomous Jameson’s mamba. The zookeeper drove him to nearby Stanton, where they were met by an ambulance.
“I told the paramedics that I would need five vials of antivenom and adrenaline and that I was probably going to need to be intubated. That’s the last thing I remember,” Mr. Harrison told Lexington’s WDKY-TV.
The paramedics complied but, in doing so, violated state policy. The Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services changed its rules on antivenom two years ago, and only wilderness paramedics are allowed to administer antivenom.
Powell County Judge Executive Eddie Barnes, one of the responding paramedics, told WKYT-TV, another Lexington station, that he and the other medic didn’t know the rules had changed. Mr. Barnes and the other medic involved face a hearing from the board on Sept. 30.
“If we had sat there and let him die, then we would have been morally and ethically responsible, and we could have been criminally charged for his death,” Mr. Barnes said.
Mr. Harrison’s wife, Kristen Wiley, told the station that “every physician that we’ve talked to about it, and about the course of the bite, agrees that they were heroes and did what needed to be done to save him. That’s who I want working on me in an emergency.”
Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services Executive Director Eddie Slone told WDKY that cases involving a potential violation of regulations first go before a Preliminary Inquiry Board, staffed by other people who work in emergency medical services, that will determine whether the case goes to an administrative hearing.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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