I heard you can get sued if you help someone and you are not certified.
Like if you learned it 30 years ago and you see someone choking and you help them and afterward they are like I don’t want your help and your not certified then they sue. Or if you see someone unconscious and you get them CPR or something and they wake up and say I never wanted your help and your not certified. Can they sue? And can you do that?
Thanks.
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Most states have a Good Samaritan Law that protects people who give help and do not have to- trained or certified or not.
As long as you…
- act in good faith (intention of helping without reward)
- behave like a reasonable and prudent person with your training (or lack of it) would, and
- use a little common sense, then
…you are covered.
Now- if the victim is conscious and responsive, you need their permission to help- otherwise it is assault and battery and outside the Good Sam Law. (As with your choking victim.)
If the victim is unconscious, you have ‘implied consent’ to help.
The Good Sam Law is powerful. Unless you act in a really stupid way, you are OK.
Now- common sense says that if you don’t know what you are doing, you call 911 and follow their directions- they can often talk you through an emergency.
In California, an appellate court has determined that only ‘emergency medical care’ is covered, but that rescues, etc. may not be. This is based on a 2007 ruling where a layperson pulled a person from a car the rescuer thought was going to catch fire, and the victim is now paralyzed.
Without knowing the details in the case, this is a classic example of a lack of knowledge and poor judgment making things worse. The ‘rescuer pulling an spinal injury victim from a car that ‘might’ explode and hurting them worse’ used to be a big problem driven by the popular TV scenario of every car blowing up- even when cars rarely burn in real life.
It depends on the state.
In general if a person is unconscious they are giving implied consent. A person who truly choking will pass out and then you have implied consent again.
There are money hungry people who may try to sue but as long as you do what any reasonable person would do in the same situation the case would more than likely be thrown out.