Dr Sue Ieraci Emergency physician in Sydney , NSW .

Why our readiness to judge after the taser tragedy worries me .

Clare Nowland was reported to have been aged 95 and living with dementia . The incident apparently occurred at about 4am . The use of the taser had caused her to fall and sustain a serious head injury .

Write-off here and ideally three lines if possible please , thankyou Obitius molupienime quat im num nume sust , simus doluptas

Pull Quote here Si odi totatiatem faccusa erovid magnimus , sitatum asitiis eariatio es qui cuptiorDolupid quam , sunt . Nis ne as recto et facia qui ut quiam , quis ma nullorest inctum ligendaerum

We know there is a video of the event . We know that the police officer has been stood down and charged . What very few people know , however , are the full circumstances — the detailed facts of the case .

Most people have found the use of a taser on a frail old lady to be alarming . I agree .

However , another aspect disturbs me : the readiness of so many people

to make judgements and deliver commentary on the basis of very little factual information .

And what disturbs me even more is the ready tendency of clinicians in the workplace to deliver similar sorts of judgements on colleagues .

Instead of evolving with evidence , as medical science does , it seems that clinical risk management is stubbornly stuck in the 20th century .

We assume that risk in human life can be reduced to zero . And we are all too ready to proclaim that someone else “ needs more training ” but less likely to judge our own training to be inadequate .

The woman was in a 40-bed facility in a relatively small town . The incident occurred overnight . Ambulance officers were called as well as police .

We don ’ t know whether the onsite staffing included an RN . We don ’ t know how experienced or well educated the staff were .

We don ’ t know what they tried before calling the ambulance and police .

We don ’ t know how long they persisted in trying to de-escalate before calling for help . We don ’ t know whether they tried calling the patient ’ s GP . We don ’ t know whether the onsite staff had previously experienced an injury in such a situation . Further in the background , we don ’ t know whether there was a history of similar behaviour . We don ’ t know whether this woman was on anticoagulants — despite being over 90 and at risk of falling .

Most experienced and skilled people in each of the professions represented were likely to have been at home in bed at the time . We know that police are often expected — probably against their better judgement and interests — to back up healthcare staff where there is risk of danger .

We also know that this lady was injured by the fall , not the taser . Let ’ s put ourselves in the shoes of those who were there , just for a moment .

If , for example , we had chosen to contain the situation by knocking over the walker or throwing a blanket over the lady and she had fallen and sustained a head injury , would the result be different ?

Would the judgement be different ?

I have nothing but sympathy for the family who lost this revered member in such a sad and public way .

But kindness should not be preserved for patients and their families — we also owe kindness to one another .

Part of that kindness , and respect , is to withhold our judgement until the facts are known . Each of us has acted in ways that seemed most appropriate in the situation we faced at the time but were shown to be less ideal with hindsight .

The investigation of these circumstances , which must include the resources and cognitive processes available to the team at the time , should be an opportunity to learn .

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12 / 9 / 2022 7:42 pm