Colorado strikes “excited delirium” from all law enforcement diagnosis, training documents

Technically EMS doesn't diagnose. We assess and treat symptoms to keep the patient stable until we can get them to a medical facility. Of course there are things that are blindingly easy to diagnose and generally most doctors won't tell you "you can't diagnose that open femur fracture, that's my job". But officially the line has always been that we don't diagnose so when we are recording and reporting things we will typically say something like "the patient is showing symptoms of XYZ" rather than "the patient has XYZ".

When it comes to dealing with police officially they are the only people that can involuntarily commit someone (at least in my area). And officially EMS has to respect that decision however that doesn't always happen. There used to be a cop in my area that used to try to do that to anyone who "was problematic" and that officer got really used to hearing no from EMS. Other times EMS works with police is when there is a danger on the scene. For example if you're called out for a gunshot wound and it is suspected that the gunman is still there then you don't go in. You stage a block or two away and let the blue canaries clear the place first.

EMTs don't want to stand up to police because police officers like to threaten them if they don't follow what the cops say to do.

As a former firefighter and EMT, the very first rule you apply to any interaction/call/scene is "scene secure scene safe". The idea is to not walk into a dangerous scene and become an additional victim. (Consider walking into a traffic accident, or walking into a live electrical line).

It also applies to violent or dangerous situations. In each case we look to the expert to get us to the scene. For the traffic accident we look for firefighters or other units to block traffic. For electrical, we look for the utility folks.

For potentially violent spaces we look to police. They have the "security" authority.

So this gets ugly when cops flex authority, and in this moment we have no authority. Obviously we have professional candor, as we see these people on calls all week, but if they go hard we can't overrule them.

nearly did a push-up

Sounds more like: couldn't do a push-up.

Why are cops in the US making diagnoses?

Because Excited Delirium is a fabricated condition meant to protect police and axon (tazer manufacturer.)

All about Excited Delirium part 1 and part 2.

IMO this is a huge win, and we should hope this gets repeated state by state.

When someone dies and police are involved the officers should be arrested and held with pay until we know it wasn't police brutality or other foul play on their part

Ketamine does have valid medical uses, namely pain killing and sedation, it's that in cases such as these it's completely unnecessary

Because k-holes fell great!

Excited Delirium is not a real condition and was made up by police to give themselves an excuse to use excessive force on someone the police deem as standard uncooperative

Symptoms are said to include aggressive behavior, extreme physical strength and hyperthermia. It is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the International Classification of Diseases, and is not recognized by the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine,[5] or the National Association of Medical Examiners.[6]

Excited Delerium doesn't exist. No actual medical body recognizes it as an actual disorder. It is a term coined solely by police to give an excuse for why someone died in their care.

So weird to think someone would be put into the position that they need to administer benzos to someone because they're in danger of violence from the cops for not promptly complying

They should just say the jumbject displayed hostile behavior

And that'll be coming from the people displaying "hostile behavior" on a daily basis, then?