Doctors: Taser stopped teen's heart

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-taser04s1.html

A 14-year-old shocked by a Chicago Police stun gun has become the first Taser-linked cardiac arrest to be documented in a medical journal, two doctors from Children's Memorial Hospital say.

The doctors, in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, say the electricity delivered from the Taser stun gun led the boy to suffer "ventricular fibrillation,'' in which the heart stops beating.

In the boy's case, paramedics already on the scene immediately used a defibrillator to restart his heart. The doctors argue that police who deploy Tasers should carry such medical equipment just in case. snip

It follows a similar conclusion in July by the Cook County medical examiner's office in a case that happened the same week. The medical examiner ruled the death of Ronald Hasse was a homicide, occurring after Chicago Police used a Taser for nearly a minute to subdue him.

[Mairead]

1. The rules want revising: if it wouldn't be okay to shoot the person

dead, it shouldn't be okay to use a taser.

[enlightenment]

5. Re-reading an old, but good, mystery last night

"The Daughter of Time." In the story, the policeman comments that criminal personalities don't have any difficulty making the connection between "A and B" but cannot seem to make the connection between "B and C."
The same seems to be true for taser and gun apologists. The tired adage of "Guns (tasers) don't kill people, people kill people" is certainly true as far as it goes -- taking care of the "A to B" part of the equation.
The problem is with the "B to C" part that is rarely voiced -- "people kill people WITH guns (and now tasers)."

[jayctravis]

9. The problem is that most people believe tasers are nonlethal...

turns out that they seem to have about a 20% mortality rate.

Tasers don't kill people, uninformed people kill people with tasers.

[enlightenment]

11. Unfortunately true, that many people are

sorely uninformed -- but the people who primarily wield tasers, those in law enforcement, should know better.
Ignorance is only an excuse the first time something happens. Parents rarely allow their children to use ignorance as a "repeat excuse;" why on earth do we allow our public officials to do that very thing?

[Mairead]

12. And we let them use the excuse over and over--it never wears out

And it's not just cops, either, is it.

We're such suckers. :(

[Judi Lynn]

2. The Taser proponents are dug in for the duration.As numbers rise

the answer remains the same: it's not Taser's fault.

....The medical examiner ruled the death of Ronald Hasse was a homicide, occurring after Chicago Police used a Taser for nearly a minute to subdue him.

That ruling was the first in the nation that listed a shock from a Taser as the primary cause of death, even though more than 129 people had died following such shocks, Amnesty International said at the time.
(snip)

Guess we're supposed to "get over it," huh? Whatever MEpublicans and their business interests wants we're going to have, unless we all go berserk and become deviants like them and scratch, claw, lie, cheat, steal, murder to get back the power they stole in order to rape, disgust, and rule the the world.

[jody]

3. We should ask uncooperative suspects to sign a release form allowing

law enforcement officers to use a taser. :sarcasm:

[Mairead]

4. Save time--ask for a relase allowing themselves to be killed (nt)

[struggle4progress]

6. Let's see. The taser shock interferes with nerve and muscle function ..

.. thereby incapacitating the subject. The heart is a bundle of muscles, and its pace is controlled by nerve impulses. And so taser enthusiasts conclude: a taser shock couldn't possibly interfere with coronary function ...

[mongo]

7. The cops are using tasers for CONVENIENCE

So they don't have to get scuffed up arresting a suspect.

If the paramedics were already on scene, how may cops were there? How many cops does it take to subdue a 14yo BOY?

[Mairead]

8. Exactly: convenience. They should be suspended for committing assault

[sakabatou]

10. Tasers should not be called non-lethal anymore...

I wonder when stinkbomb pellets, pepperpellets, plastic rings, will get used