GRIFFIN, Ga. - A Georgia county is looking into whether any rules were violated after a firefighter took graphic cell phone video of a fatal crash that was shared with other firefighters, patrons at a bar and was later received by the father of the woman who died.



Jeff Kempson tells Atlanta station WAGA-TV he doesn't understand why a firefighter would have taken the video of his daughter, 23-year-old Dayna Kempson-Schacht. She died July 17 when her car crashed into trees.

The Spalding County Sheriff's office says a firefighter took the video on his personal cell phone and shared it with other firefighters. An unknown firefighter later took the video to a bar and texted it to other patrons. From there, the video spread.

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Information from: WAGA-TV, http://www.wagatv.com/index.shtml



Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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HIPAA doesn't cover anything given from one health care provider to another as long as it's pertinent to patient care, evidence preservation, or other governmental right.

Further, HIPAA doesn't cover any emergency service unless they provide patient care and bill for it electronically.

You might want to look at HIPAA again, too.
I have never heard of such an unprofessional act by a fire fighter. I was taught to have the up most respect for the individual regardless of the fact that they were deceased. This was someone's daughter and deserved nothing but the respect deserved from the responding personnel. I am personally disgusted that this could ever happen in the Fire Rescue community.

The fact of wheather this was or wasn't a crime is for Law Enforcement. Definitely termination grounds. If EMS certified I would also think grounds for review.

Where was the on scene Officer or LEA when this occurred? Another sad day.

My condolences to the family.

There is not enough that can be said to apologize for what has been done to the family. :(
I didn't say it was our duty to protect a patient from being photographed. However these firemen passed around these photos to complete strangers in bars that were not involved.

Someone, not naming names or departments, the next jurisdiction almost lost his job for this very thing. No HIPAA does not protect patients from being photographed but work in EMS for a while. You wil find out that you can be fired AND lose your license just for talking about a patient with non-coworkers where im from.

So you're right...via HIPAA maybe not...via many department and medical directors, most certainly.
These photos werent given from one provider to another...they were texted around in a bar to civilians.
Check out the discussion here....

Does HIPAA cover deceased individuals?
http://www.hcpro.com/HIM-23324-866/Does-HIPAA-cover-deceased-indivi...

(Answer: Yes. You must comply with the regulations for protected health information (PHI) of a deceased person the same way you would for living persons....)
Larry -

I'd be interested in this as well. You (and I) might search around the

FirePIO Blog -
http://thefirepio.com/

Seems to me he'd have some thoughts/guidelines.
seek and ye shall find...

Simply Explained Social Media Policy
http://thefirepio.com/2010/09/20/simply-explained-social-media-policy/

Embracing Social Media in the Fire Service
http://firecritic.com/2009/10/embracing-social-media-in-the-fire-se...

Social Media Use on the Job
http://firecritic.com/2010/05/social-media-use-on-the-job/

Knowing the rules within your dept. for social media
http://firecritic.com/2009/09/knowing-the-rules-within-your-dept-fo...
Cannot beleive that a firefighter would do this. some bystander off the street doing it and putting it on you tube is one thing but a firefighter doing it is stuppid and at the very least they should be on suspension.
In my department we may take a pictures of the car and the sceen put never of the person we do are best to keep the news peaple away also.
the "people on scene take pics all the time . they should be fined
Ok this dude and his buddies are complete ass*oles. this video in my mind was purposly taken for just what happened.... to go on the internet.I'm sure he didn't mean for it to go to the parents but I don,t give a flyin F**K,once it left his phone who knows where it's goin.This buddy should get more than fired he should get locked in a room for 15 minutes with the family with no witnesses.I don't know anybody on any department that wants to use a bashed in skull or mangled body for a training video,personally I don't know anyone who even wants to respond tothis let alonevideo it so he could relive it again but that's just me. This guy has flames shooting out my ears I would like to go in the room with the family also. And like said there aren't enough words to be said that could possibly apoligize for these F**ckin idiots. Sorry that's all I got cause I'm just dumb-founded and speechless.
what happen to doing your job apperently the firefighter taking the video was to busy making movies and not his/her job

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