The Call Nobody Trained You For — Jim Schmidt on Domestic Violence Recognition

About this episode

Jim Schmidt discusses the challenges EMS faces in recognizing and treating domestic violence victims based on his personal experiences.

Most medics walk onto a domestic violence scene armed with instinct and not much else. Jim Schmidt thought 20 years in the fire service had prepared him for anything — until he had to identify his stepdaughter Gabby Petito's body in 2021. In the months and years after he realized how little EMS is prepared to recognize and treat domestic violence victims. What he's learned since has rewritten what first responders should be doing on these calls. Jim walks us through the red flags, why strangulation may leave no external marks but signals a 750% jump in homicide risk, how to document, how to treat and talk to the patient, and what patterns we can recognize. Resources DomesticShelters.org — find local DV/SA orgs by address National DV Hotline — 1-800-799-SAFE · text START to 88788 JEMS article by Jim Schmidt on educating first responders to recognize domestic violence: https://www.jems.com/ems-training/domestic-violence-educating-first-responders/ Jim Hopper, PHD on the neurobiology of trauma and sexual assault: https://www.youtube.com/@JimHopperPhD Want to go deeper? Book a Free Coaching Call at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call Sign up for the weekly newsletter…

People in this episode

Host: Ross Orpet

Guest: Jim Schmidt

Topics covered

• domestic violence
• EMS training
• first responders
• trauma recognition
• patient care

Keywords

• domestic violence
• EMS
• first responders
• trauma
• patient care
• recognition
• strangulation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DomesticShelters.org, National DV Hotline, JEMS, emspodcast.com

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