Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

County medical services board sides with paramedics

For almost a month, Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, a neurosurgeon, has slammed the paramedics who attempted to save a motorcycle stuntman from death. But in a discussion with his medical peers, the doctor appears to have struck out.

Medical protocol was at issue -- who had the right to treat Butch Laswell on March 10 after his ill-fated jump that saw him plummet 65 feet to his death.

Hammargren has made headlines contending he was the one who should have cared for Laswell immediately after the accident, that he'd asked to take over and was pushed away by the emergency rescue crew.

He's said that had the paramedics permitted him to perform a tracheotomy on Laswell seconds after the crash, the 37-year-old man would be alive today.

And he's said that paramedics who did treat the late stuntman were neither equipped nor capable of saving the man's life, which the medical advisory board of the county's emergency medical services program discredits with Laswell's autopsy report.

"He had catastrophic injuries," Dr. Joseph Beck said Wednesday. "He did have an airway problem, but whether or not he had a tracheotomy ... performed at that initial point in time, I can state unequivocably that he would not have (survived)."

The advisory board, Hammargren and the standing-room-only crowd had a chance to see a videotape of Laswell's jump in Mesquite and observe the pandemonium in the crowd during the four minutes it took paramedics to board Laswell onto the ambulance in a rush to meet the Flight for Life helicopter in which he died almost half an hour after the jump.

Laswell had asked a personal friend, a Las Vegas paramedic, to be at the jump in case of emergency. Hammargren said he was contacted by Si Redd's Oasis hotel-casino, which hosted the event, to come out to Mesquite for the jump but could not answer why he thought he was to be in charge of Laswell's care.

Hammargren pulled out from his bag Wednesday night the red jacket he was wearing at the jump, his name emblazoned on the back with the words "SURGEON." He videotaped the event and had his camera in hand when he got to Laswell's body after the crash. His medical bag was left in the trunk of his car.

Board members said it was understandable that paramedics pushed Hammargren away when he rushed to Laswell after the crash and yelled at them to "give me a knife" to perform a tracheotomy.

The paramedics pushed him away along with numerous other people trying to push their way forward claiming they were doctors and nurses, many of them with alcohol on their breath, said Susan Hardy, director of Mesquite's ambulance services.

Dr. Richard Adams said it's obvious why the paramedics were concerned "when a guy in a bright red jacket runs up and says give me a knife."

"My diagnosis was accurate, my treatment would have been appropriate, and if I would have been permitted to treat the patient, he would have had an airway to save his life within 45 seconds, not 45 minutes," Hammargren said.

The debate may never end, but Butch Laswell's family hopes if anything comes out of the debate, it's that the same situation doesn't happen again when another person's life is in jeopardy.

The board resolved to form a special events committee to meet with organizers of future events to develop a medical game plan before the event happens.

"To the paramedics in Mesquite, thank you. The family doesn't blame you at all," said Gary Laswell, the motorcycle stuntman's cousin, who attended the meeting. "You can't blame anyone for the death of a guy who was living his dreams.

"Butch being who he was, he couldn't afford to have his own medical team of experts. He was just a guy getting by. Who's to say he could've been saved? If they could've saved him, would he be in a wheelchair? ... When you're doing what you love, you can't blame someone else when something goes wrong."

The Laswell family is amazed that the jump provoked enough controversy to remain in the news a month later.

"Hopefully soon this whole thing will be over, so that we can just get on with life," Gary Laswell said. "I lost a cousin and a friend. To me, it seems like he's just on another big road trip and he hasn't gotten home yet."

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