[music playing]
City of New Orleans 911.
What's your emergency?
Can you tell me if he's awake and breathing?
All right.
I'm sending paramedics to help you now.
They say he breathing, but we don't
know anything else because the caller said they
ain't getting close to him.
Yeah.
She said she afraid.
Said they're going crazy.
This is New Orleans EMS.
I was born and raised here.
I don't blame this caller one bit
for not wanting to go outside and make
contact with this person.
You have to put your safety over everything.
But we're kind of walking into the situation blind.
However, we're used to going into these situations
without a lot of information.
This gentleman doesn't really want
to tell us his name, doesn't want
to tell us anything about him.
How are you doing, my man?
Are you able to speak to me, bud?
All right.
You ETOH.
That's what it is.
Look, if you don't speak to me or talk to me,
you'll have to go to the hospital, OK?
So I smelled ETOH for sure.
What's going on, brother?
But he ain't talking to me.
I don't know if this is alcohol behavior, but--
- Hey. - --it is abnormal.
This patient is not talking we notice
a strong scent of alcohol coming from his vomit.
Can we get your name?
But seeing this patient literally
in a sitting-up position not doing anything,
my head is full of question marks at this time.
You have ID?
I'mma see.
Can you write it down?
Can you text it on your phone?
I don't know what that means.
Do you understand me?
All right.
So since you can understand me, I'm telling you
we don't understand what you're trying to say.
In order for us to best help you, if you can talk,
you should probably talk.
We are not really grasping why this patient is
trying to make sign language.
Is this something that's intentional
or is he that intoxicated to where
this is his current behavior?
But this is still a medical call.
Something more severe can be happening to this person
or has already happened and he don't realize because it's
being masked by the alcohol.
You're going to go to the hospital, all right?
So you don't want to go to the hospital?
All right, well, we need to get some kind of answers.
What year is it?
Who is the president?
What's going to happen is I'm going
to call my doctor right now.
I'm going to get orders to take you against your will
to go to the hospital, OK?
Unfortunately, that's where we at.
Hopefully we can just get you to stand up and sit
on the stretcher, which would be the best route for everybody,
OK?
We are trying to make this as easy as possible, all right?
Right there.
Right here.
Right there.
[radio beeps]
Matt Cantrell calling for us to take a patient.
Go ahead.
Hey I have a male.
He was found unresponsive by bystanders.
He do have vomit smell of ETOH.
The stretcher for me.
He's being non-verbal with us.
Able to follow commands, however.
I'm calling for orders to take the patient against his will
and transport to appropriate facility.
We can't leave somebody stumbling in the street who can
potentially get hit by a car.
We can't leave somebody unresponsive, altered,
and they aspirating on their vomit and die.
We have to bring you to the hospital to prevent
those things from happening.
Copy.
Appreciate it. Orders granted.
I--
Play it cool with him.
Oh, you talk now.
Come on, you got to sit on the stretcher now, brother.
Sit down for us.
One, two.
Non-cooperative [inaudible] with fire.
Stop.
No.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Let go of me. Let go of me.
One second.
See if we got restraints.
Nope, no, no no no no.
Yeah, we got some.
Yes, between [inaudible].
Hey, relax, sir. Relax.
Relax.
All right.
Man is going in.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
no, no, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Put that in.
We never want to give pharmaceuticals
in order to get a patient to go to the hospital.
However, we also know that it is the best route to make
this patient to where they're no longer a danger to us
or themselves.
No, you're not.
You wasn't talking to us.
We're trying to get answers from you, OK?
You wasn't talking to us.
It seems to be medical because you was
initially found unresponsive.
You vomited on top of it.
It smells like alcohol, which you
could have just had a little bit more too much to drink, OK.
It's all good.
It happens, but we need to take care of you
to make sure that's it, all right.
Say, bro.
Don't do none of that spitting.
Yeah, don't do that. Uh-uh.
- Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. - Stop.
Stop squeezing my arm.
Give me two more restraints, shep.
Just relax.
Take some deep breath and relax.
You're going to feel OK.
I'm about to get you some more chemical restraints.
Stop.
What the [bleep] are you injecting me with?
What the [bleep] are you doing?
Oh.
Sedation medication.
Oh boy.
Yeah.
Oh boy.
What's your name?
Oh, I know that look.
Never mind. Hold on.
Hold on a sec.
It makes the world of difference by giving them that sedative.
So once my man gets to the hospital,
they'll put him on a monitor, they'll run some blood tests.
He can sober up, and hopefully we won't have to meet again.
He's still fighting you?
Not much.
He's breathing good too.