Good Samaritan Policy - would this apply to their customers too?

Good Samaritan Policy - would this apply to their customers too?

October 18, 2011

Good Samaritan Policy - would this apply to their customers too?

I know this blog entry is a little off topic, but I just had to address. Some policies are just made to be broken.

In an astounding article I just read… http://tiny.cc/r0ace a popular cable company was willing to sacrifice an employee’s life over avoiding legal troubles for becoming involved in administering CPR.

An employee was in apparent medical distress, clearly needing urgent and immediate attention. A fellow co-worker proceeded to perform CPR and the supervisor intervened and demanded they stop and get back to the phones. According to the article and by the companies own admission they have “policy” for such situations. The popular cable company released the following statement: “**** * responded appropriately to a medical emergency. Our company has procedures in place to respond to emergencies. We are saddened by the loss of one of our employees who was a co-worker and a friend. Our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time.”

What if it was a customer in distress can you imagine the PR nightmare. Whether it’s an internal customer or external customer the basic rights to administering live saving techniques should not come down to “policy”.