After Gary Hobish collapsed while swing-dancing with friends in Golden Gate Park Sunday, a fellow dancer raced to the nearby de Young Museum in search of a defibrillator. Most people in the group knew Hobish, 70, had a heart condition. Seconds counted.
Inside the museum, Tim O’Brien found himself pleading with a staff member to let him use the life-saving device, or to accompany him back to where Hobish, a legend of the Bay Area music scene, lay unconscious. O’Brien offered the museum staffer his wallet and his watch as collateral.
The museum staffer checked with his boss, but the answer was firm: The de Young defibrillator could not leave the building.
O’Brien sprinted empty handed back to the group, where a doctor who had luckily been on the scene was administering CPR. Paramedics arrived a few minutes later, but by then nearly 10 minutes had gone by, O’Brien said.
But I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends
“I would rather someone die than risk breaking an arbitrary rule that carries no consequences” - America, 2023
Was there an ethical obligation to share the defibrillator?
The answer is not obvious.
Next paragraph.
Officials and experts said there was apparently no legal obligation for the de Young to share the device.
They highlighted several complicating considerations: What if the staffer had lent it out, and minutes later someone at the museum collapsed and needed it, they asked. And why should he lend it quickly to a distressed stranger, not knowing if it was a thief trying to make off with a device that usually costs around $2,000?
What if two people at the museum collapse at the same time and require defibrillating? What if the thief actually needed that money to save 3 lives?
I know what motherfucker ghostwrote this drivel.
What if, while we were using the fire extinguisher, a different fire broke out? We’d better not use it at all.
“A person dying of heart failure is a person dying of heart failure, but the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a person dying of heart failure!”
What if the staffer had lent it out, and minutes later someone at the museum collapsed and needed it
Doing
to explain that the life of the old man dying outside is outweighed by the incredibly low risk to the life of a paying customer 
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The trolley problem and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
Of course it’s San Francisco
The museum staffer checked with his boss, but the answer was firm: The de Young defibrillator could not leave the building.
ethics without morals strikes again
Death to America
i realize it is a feature of the communist’s worldsickness to hear this and think “this is because capitalism,” but i cannot think of another reason that multiple people could be told “there is an urgent medical emergency and we need the tiniest bit of help from you” and reply “that’s not my problem, plus i could get in trouble.”
As someone who has been “in charge” on a site where there’s a defibrillator and had absolutely no training regarding it, I feel for the museum staff a bit. The one I’m familiar with was covered in warnings that amount to “absolutely do not open this box unless you are currently speaking with a medical professional who is telling you to do so” so I can’t say for sure what I’d do if a random person ran in and told me they needed to take it elsewhere. Sitting around now I can logically see, yeah, better to just let them take it and deal with the consequences than risk someone dying because I didn’t, but it’s not quite as easy when you’re suddenly thrust into that situation out of nowhere while you’re trying to get your work done and thinking about what you’re going to make for dinner
If I could teach every spineless American liberal one thing with the snap of my finger it is that STEALING IS EASY AND MORALLY CORRECT IN MANY SITUATIONS.
Also: sometimes, don’t ask your boss. Just do it.
This is what happens when society is centered around profit. The need of the institution to avoid liability, potential liability, is put higher than a person’s life. The staff member probably feared they’d lose their job or be retaliated against if they made a real decision. The boss made a choice to defend the institution at any cost.
What a fucked up system.
Life saving necessities are right there and they’re systematically denied to the ones who need them. We have enough housing to house the homeless. We have enough food to feed the hungry. We have enough medicine to heal the world. Yet doing all these things is a threat to profit, and so instead we feed bodies into the profit grinder, and the capitalists become rich and powerful on their blood.
I value efficiency so much and that makes me sad that the defibulator didnt get used. People made it for that purpose. Its an insult to any of the workers who loved their jobs.
also you know a man died
“We are deeply saddened to learn about the death of Gary Hobish in Golden Gate Park,” museum Director of Communications Helena Nordstrom said in emails to the Chronicle. “We don’t know exactly what happened and are trying to determine the facts.
“We don’t permit technical equipment beyond laptops to leave the building without permission. Then again, the event has prompted us to review the museums’ emergency response procedures for events that may occur outside the museum premises in the future so we can be as helpful as possible.”
- do not admit responsibility of any kind (“we are sorry” can be interpreted an admission of guilt).
- do not admit even a cursory understanding of the reported sequence of events that took place
- investigate internally
- imply internal examination of policies
CYA, the most american of moves.
any building open to the public and hosting an organization that has received > 1 cent of public assistance, tax credits, in-kind contributions or anything i’m not thinking of should be required to have these and make them available to anyone who asks. it should just be baked into the “cost of doing anything” like potable water, stable structures or other features of public safety. $2k ain’t shit. hell, we pay cops 3x that a month in the most podunk ass towns to take naps in their cars and shoot pets.
I don’t care if the defibrillator is a 100 year old antique worth a billion dollars on private property, or should still be accessible to anyone.
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Even if you accept that policy, couldn’t someone have given permission?
TIL duty to rescue laws don’t exist in most countries
What the fuck?
Reminds me of the kids who were punished for saving their classmates from asthma attacks. One was punished for “sharing a controlled substance”, an inhaler, and the other was punished for carrying a kid to the nurse after the teacher told the class to stay in their seats while she waited for an email response from the nurse, even after the kid had collapsed on the floor from minutes of not being able to breathe. https://archive.is/xwnju
uhh, just take it dude.
Publish that boss’s name.
🙂
Pardon my ignorance on the subject, but WHO THE FUCK STEALS A DEFIBRILLATOR? IS THERE SOME SORT OF UNDERGROUND BLACK MARKET FOR DEFIBRILLATORS OF WHICH I AM UNAWARE?
We might need to start one to defend ourselves
