Advocate urges Connecticut to change EMS rules or pass law to let paramedics give life‑saving patient‑carried injectables
Summary
A long‑time advocate urged the council to support EMS scope‑of‑practice changes or legislation to allow paramedics to administer patient‑carried, time‑critical injectables with liability protections and targeted education funding, citing a Missouri law and a fatal California case.
An advocate who founded a nonprofit to improve emergency care for people with rare and chronic conditions urged the Rare Disease Advisory Council to support regulatory or legislative changes that would allow paramedics to administer patient‑carried, time‑critical injectable medications and receive liability protection.
Darlene described a multi‑state effort that began in Missouri; the state passed an EMS treatment bill in 2017 that explicitly included patient‑carried injectable medications and provided liability protections for medical directors and paramedics. She urged Connecticut to adopt similar language and to earmark education dollars for EMS so scope changes are implemented through training and dissemination. Darlene recounted a fatal California incident in which paramedics did not accept a patient’s clotting factor from his wife and the patient later died en route to a hospital; she used the case to underline risks when EMS cannot or will not administer patient‑carried meds under current scopes of practice.
Darlene concluded that statutory change is stronger than a regulatory scope change because a law is harder to change back and said she is available to help draft or consult on legislation and protocols. RDAC members thanked her and signaled interest in exploring the topic further.
