Medical Incidents:
On set invariably there will be accidents. People will become injured. Amongst the most common of mistakes is administration of improper first aid. The old “hey, he’s having a seizure, lets shove something in his mouth!”.
Let me be clear on this topic. If you are not a trained medical professional, as well intentioned as you are there is a very large chance that you can make an injury worse than it needed to be. Your duties as a Good Samaritan and someone who wants to help would be best served by following this protocol:
In case of a fellow crew member injury (off set, on the job):
- Utilize common sense. If it is a life threatening injury activate 911 immediately.
- Follow and abide by all of the 911 operators orders and requests.
- Call for the set medic (if available)
- If you can do so without hindering the rescue effort call your HOD and report the incident, then utilize channel one and report the incident to the AD department or to production.
- From here the protocols remain the same as “Injuries in the kitchen”
- If it is not a life threatening injury, disregard activating 911 and abide the protocols from “call the set medic”.
In case of a “Contestant” injury (off set, on the job):
- Follow all of the above protocols.
- Post rescue effort completion there is an immediate need to notify the EP/EIC.
In closing, we also should try to remember it is not our responsibility to diagnose the injured persons condition. It is not for us to guess if it is a pre-existing condition, to ask them about the status of their health insurance or ask other personal questions. It is simply your duty to follow the appropriate guidelines mentioned above.
Incident Reports from non-AD’s:
It is the AD’s or if the AD is not present the highest-ranking producers obligation to fill out an incident report and turn it into the production manager. The incident report should include:
- Date, time and location of incident.
- The names of the people involved in the incident.
- Your perception of what happened.
- The actions you took to rectify the situation.
AD’s will turn this report in as part of the Daily Production Report.