Mt. Lebanon woman sues after police detain her during epileptic seizure

[MrScorpio]

Friday, July 16, 2010
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Jessica Yochum

When Jessica Yochum had an epileptic seizure at work in February, her co-workers at Houlihan's at the Galleria knew what was happening.

They called 911 and told dispatchers the young woman was seizing.

But when emergency responders from the Medical Rescue Team South Authority ambulance service and Mt. Lebanon police arrived, they did not follow what are considered by experts to be standard protocols for such an event.

They handcuffed Ms. Yochum, 23, shackled her and restrained her head. All that, her attorney said, exacerbated the seizure.

By the time they got her to St. Clair Hospital, she had inadvertently bitten one of the ambulance workers, and the police were accusing her of being on cocaine.

They charged her with aggravated assault for the bite -- even after they learned from Ms. Yochum's doctor that the girl had epilepsy and was not taking any illegal drugs.

The case was ultimately dismissed by a magisterial district judge, but Ms. Yochum filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the parties involved, alleging a number of counts, including violations of her due process rights, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10197/1073079-455.stm

[joeybee12]

1. Sue the bastards...KNR

[jwirr]

2. Good.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. You really do need well-programmed robots, if only to tell your police what to do.

[polly7]

4. Rule #1, do not restrain a seizing pt.

Shackling??? I can't believe they passed their courses.

[NJmaverick]

5. Actually rule one is keep your fingers out of their mouths

so you don't get bit (which they did), so yeah the EMTs had no idea what they were doing.

[polly7]

10. Well, as an EMT, I do see it as rule one, even a grade 6 health

class teaches not to insert a finger in the mouth of a seizing person ...... my apologies, I was thinking more of the welfare of the pt.

[Hansel]

6. God, how stupid do you have to be to not be able to tell the...

difference between an epileptic seizure and a person using cocaine?

Unbelievable. I hope she wins big time. I'm so sick of these police over-reactions to just about anything. Are they that damn bored that they have to make up attack situations so they can use their new "kung foo moves" and toys? Oooo, I'm feeling threatened by this little blond women!!!! Get the cuffs on her and taser at the ready.

I met a woman in a community pool when I was a kid who had come up to introduce herself and went into a grand mal epileptic seizure. Although it was startling, I did not feel physically threatened and the thought never entered my mind that "hey, I think that woman's on drugs." I was pretty clear she was sick.

Geez!

[Kievan Rus]

11. Most cops are so dumb they make Sarah Palin look like a Rhodes Scholar

[Odin2005]

7. As a disabled person, THIS is why I am frightened of cops.

I'm scared to death I'll be tazed if I have an autistic meltdown in a public place.

[KamaAina]

12. Fortunately, I have had rather few meltdowns since tasers became popular penis extensions.

That, and I'm white, which helps. :eyes:

[corpseratemedia]

8. She is lucky she isn't dead because they didn't follow protocol.

I hope she wins.

[madrchsod]

9. at least her college will be paid for....

the paramedics should be fired and their licences revoked for life. the cops will skate by with a reprimand and the taxpayers will be paying her college expenses.

[mrmpa]

13. Mt. Lebanon cops are assholes

They have a rep in Pittsburgh. If you don't live in their community they could not care less about you. I don't know if they have any female officers or officers of color on their force. When I first read this article, I just shook my head.