Harborview must explain actions

Soon after the Marysville Emergency Medical Response team responded to and cared for victims of the tragic events of the shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School, this response team was being accused of exercising poor judgment in their deployment of resources to the victims of the shooting. The source of these accusations came from some of the leadership of the Harborview UW Medicine Emergency Medical Response team in Seattle.

Then, thanks to the astute and thorough investigation and reporting by Scott North and Chuck Taylor of The Herald, I learn that the information on which the accusations were made was grossly inaccurate and untrue.

I am sure that the members of the Marysville Response team found the accusations stingingly and maddeningly painful to hear. I know, from having worked with the program in its formative years, the high regard and respect with which the Marysville team holds the Harborview system. Some of these responders received their paramedic training there.

So, why did the Harborview leadership rush to critical judgment so quickly and so publicly? If they had concerns, would it have been more appropriate, first, to have conferenced internally with the Marysville Response Team and the Everett Providence physicians whose judgment and care were being placed in question? I think so.

There must be some motive, as inexcusable as it appears to have been, for this cruel, thoughtless and counterproductive eruption from the Harborview team to occur. The Marysville Emergency Response Team deserves to know. The public deserves to know.

Charles W. Guildner, MD

Everett