Originally Posted by
serioustraveler
And that's what's wrong with the US system, because if your life is in danger would you rather have a lay person who isn't liable if he screws up saving your life or a trained professional?
Trained professionals need to be given the same leeway as an ordinary person would otherwise it discourages them from giving aid because they're liable while the untrained people milling around could give aid and fail causing damage or death and be off the hook.
That is not exactly true. Both a trained professional and a random person are liable if they act negligently, but what is negligent is determined in the context of that person's knowledge and experience. In other words, each person is only expected to do what they should be able to do based on who they are. A trained professional is not automatically liable if something goes wrong, and an untrained person is not automatically off the hook if he does something stupid.