Paramedics unnecessarily sedated hundreds of people with ketamine during confrontations with police officers in Colorado, exposing them to potentially life-threatening complications associated with the drug. That’s according to an estimate from Dr. Mark DeBard, a professor emeritus of emergency medicine at Ohio State University and expert in cases of “excited delirium.” “It may represent a […]
Rae Solomon
KUNC
Email: rae.solomon@kunc.org Twitter: @raedear1
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News
Coloradans dosed with ketamine during police confrontations — like Elijah McClain was — want investigation
A growing number of people want Colorado officials to pause or ban medics from using ketamine on people during escalated confrontations with police. The list includes two men who were given the powerful anesthetic when medics and police decided they showed signs of “excited delirium” or extreme “agitation.” “I felt like it was over,” said […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News
Medics in Colorado dosed 902 people with ketamine for “excited delirium” in 2.5 years, including Elijah McClain
This story was originally published by KUNC. Read more at kunc.org More than 100 agencies across Colorado have approval from the state to allow medics to use ketamine, an anesthetic, on people who show signs of what’s often dubbed “excited delirium,” a practice that is now drawing national criticism from anesthesiologists and psychiatrists. Yet emergency […]