Did Councilwoman Ortiz have a point?

Please note, I am not saying that Councilwoman Ortiz went about her vendetta the right way. In fact, the way she went about it was abhorrent: she arranged for Mara, a traumatized child, to be taken away from the only successfully supportive home Mara had known, and she arranged for a Gerrard, a bigoted bully, to be reinstated to the very position he'd been dismissed from for being a bigot and a bully. Councilwoman Ortiz wanted to hurt Hen more than she wanted justice, and she didn't just hurt Hen: she hurt the people around Hen.

However...I do think Councilwoman Ortiz had a point.

Hen does have a history of making risky calls, even beyond the incidents in Councilwoman Ortiz's little "burn folder" in 7.09 Ashes, Ashes. Don't get me wrong: a lot of the calls Hen makes end up being justified, and not all of the things Councilwoman Ortiz referenced were Hen's fault (such as Evelyn Fisher's death, which was the result of the fault in the traffic light, not negligence on Hen's part). But it's just by the grace of [Insert Deity/Script-Writer Here] that Hen is right more often than she is wrong, or that when she is wrong those decisions don't result in consequences she has to deal with.

The biggest, latest one that springs to mind, for me, happens in 7.01 Abandon Ships. The F-16's pilot said to cut the red wire, then said to cut the green wire; without verifying with anyone more knowledgeable, Hen told Eddie to cut the red wire. Hen's reasoning was that the pilot would have grown more disoriented over time...and as it turned out, Hen was vindicated in that decision by the ordinance specialist.

The thing is, it just as easily could have been the other way around: the pilot could have become less disoriented over time. Hen risked her life and the lives of her teammates — as well as the life of the patient and potentially the lives of the other first responders outside the house; remember, the pilot said the dummy warhead could take out both the house they were in and potentially the house next door — on a guess. Eddie didn't end up cutting any wires thanks to Chim...but if Eddie had cut the wire, and Hen had chosen wrong? That would've been one hell of a mistake, one she only wouldn't have had to bear the consequences of because she likely would have been dead.

Hen has also shown a fairly strong prejudice against intoxicated drivers before the Kyle Ortiz incident, back in 4.09 Blindsided. It is 100% understandable for someone, especially a first responder, to be angry at a drunk driver...but as Bobby told Ethan Copeland (the SWAT sniper who targeted firefighters) in 4.14 Survivors, for firefighters and paramedics "That's the job." Paramedics have a duty of care to all their patients, even the criminal junkies that overdose and the idiots that drive drunk. They are allowed to have their personal opinions off the job...hell, as soon as they're off the scene and no longer facing the public, I feel like they could probably vent to each other about the calls they go on without issue. But while they are on the job, while they are on the scene, they can't let their prejudices get in the way or mistakes get made and deaths can occur. In Hen's case, her prejudice did actually result in a death: Kyle Ortiz.

And yes, Ortiz refused to be checked over...but as Chimney pointed out, once Ortiz was detained by the police, they could have — and should have — checked him over...because I'm not a paramedic, and I've never been to medical school, but I'm pretty sure being intoxicated doesn't make you immune to the effects of a car crash. Intoxication may help you avoid injury during an accident by keeping you more relaxed, but it's not going to magic away a traumatic brain injury if your head hits the steering wheel. Hen said "Why is it that drunks always come out of these things without a scratch?", but she never actually verified Ortiz had come out of it without a scratch.

Hen was allowed to return to duty based on the fact that Ortiz had twice the legal limit of alcohol and traces of methamphetamines in his system, but Ortiz didn't die of an overdose or alcohol poisoning: his intoxication led to his death, but didn't cause his death. We're never actually told Kyle Ortiz's cause of death, but based on Officer Williams saying "[Ortiz's] words became gibberish; he just collapsed" and Hen telling Eddie to "call the closest Level 1 trauma centre, have a neurosurgeon standing by", it seems likely he died of a fairly significant brain bleed as a result of the crash. (ETA: This is actually confirmed by Chief Simpson in 7.02, I just completely blanked on it.) Yes, the brain bleed was likely worsened by Ortiz's alcohol consumption, but it's unlikely Ortiz would have spontaneously developed a brain bleed due to the alcohol/meth consumption alone.

I am not trying to bash Hen, here: I think she is a well-written and nuanced character, and Aisha Hinds does an amazing job in portraying her. But part of being human is being flawed and making mistakes...and in this case, I think Hen made a mistake. Hen let her prejudice against intoxicated drivers get in the way of doing her job, and that led to a man's death. I was legitimately surprised that a bigger deal wasn't made of this in the show; I think it would have been interesting to explore Hen's risk-taking as a flipside to Jonah Greenway's hero complex, and discuss how even well-meaning risks and honest mistakes can still have consequences for both the 118 and for the people they help.

In sum: Hen has a history of making risky calls (and the occasional mistake) on the job. Councilwoman Ortiz — hateful and vindictive as she is — wasn't wrong for calling Hen out on this, or for being upset that her son died due to Hen's prejudice against intoxicated drivers; Councilwoman Ortiz was just wrong in how she went about it.

Thoughts?

Edit 2024-11-27:

Well. This happened. 😅

Thank you to everyone who read the post and commented! I'm the only person in my family and real-life social circle who watches 9-1-1, so I'm very happy to be able to discuss this with all of you. ❤️💙💙 Even if we disagreed, I appreciate being able to talk to you.

A few points I want to acknowledge/address:

  • Kyle Ortiz explicitly waived his right to medical care; the issue I have is that due to his impairment (being intoxicated plus, y'know, the brain bleed) he was unable to actually give the informed consent necessary to waive that right. In the 9-1-1 universe, it appears that an impaired patient can waive their right to medical care in the case of an emergency like a traffic accident. This is confirmed when Hen is returned to active duty: as far as I can tell, once it was determined Ortiz was drunk, Hen's actions were considered justified and reasonable.
  • This is not the case in real life. Or at least not always the case: please check the laws in your country and/or state so you can be sure you know your rights.
    • In real life, emergency medical services (at least in California) acknowledge that impairment (whether from injury, intoxication, shock, or any other cause) means you are unable to give informed consent. Paramedics can assess you at the scene of an emergency if you are impaired, even if you tell them not to. As I understand it, the idea is that your right to be alive supersedes your right to bodily autonomy because (due to whatever impairment you may be experiencing) you are incapable of acting in your own best interests, i.e. getting medical care so you don't die. Once you have been determined to be able to give informed consent, you can tell the paramedics/EMTs to take a hike.
  • Being drunk or otherwise intoxicated does not preclude you from receiving emergency medical care. Being an intoxicated driver makes you a complete idiot at best and a fucking arsehole at worst, but it still does not preclude you from receiving emergency care in the event of a traffic accident, even if you caused the accident.
  • Councilwoman Olivia Ortiz is a heinous human being, and even though I think she had a point, I do not think she had the right to use her power as an elected official to pursue a personal vendetta against Hen.
    • She did not have the right to traumatise a child.
    • She did not have the right to commit conspiracy with a freaking judge to keep Hen and Karen from adopting Mara.
    • She did not have the right to help Gerrard, a known homophobic, misogynistic, racist, sexist, and all-round bigoted bully to regain a position of power he'd lost because he was a bigoted bully.

Edit 2024/11/28:

I've just rewatched 7.07 Ghost of a Second Chance and both Buck and Chim tried to get Kyle Dickson, the guy who stalked and kidnapped a woman and her baby and then kidnapped a second woman (although Buck and Chim didn't know who he was at that moment) to get assessed after his car is T-boned by a police car.

Here's the interaction:

Buck: Oh, hey, let me give you a hand with that.

Dickson: W-we're OK. We're fine; we made it.

Chim: No, sir, we should actually take a look at you and your baby.

Dickson: No, no no. [to baby Chloë] Hey, 's OK, daddy's here.

Buck: Uh...uh, sir, we need you to stop. You or the baby may be injured and just not know it.

Dickson: We're fine!

Dickson then says something to the baby that makes Chim realise he's the stalker/kidnapper, so we don't actually see him getting assessed, but this demonstrates that there is some sort of protocol in the 9-1-1 universe for assessing people involved in traffic accidents, even if they refuse treatment and appear to be fine.

I admit, the situations are not an exact parallel: Dickson is the victim of the traffic accident, not the instigator like Ortiz was, and he does have blood on his face from the crash. However, like Ortiz, Dickson was alert, upright, moving well and talking. He'd refused to be checked over; if all it takes is a refusal, that should have been the end of it. But Buck and Chim seemed pretty determined to check him and the baby over before Chim had his realisation.

This obviously happens after the events of 7.02 Rock the Boat in which Kyle Ortiz died, so maybe Buck and Chim were just more cautious after the Ortiz incident. But it's interesting to see how two similar cases within the same season were handled so differently.

Edit 26 December 2024:

I rewatched the Christmas episodes of 9-1-1 yesterday. In 5.10 Wrapped in Red, Ravi demonstrates the proper protocol in getting the driver of a trolley at a Christmas village to sign off on refusing emergency medical treatment. The trolley driver who was doing maybe 10km/h (>6.5mph).

🤦‍♀️