Keyes’s post also said lifting heavy individuals risks minor or significant injury to a paramedic, so Keyes has the person suffering a medical event walk a short distance, possibly down stairs, to the gurney.

He acknowledged that having the person walk rather than be carried can prove fatal.

“The heart, already overtaxed while sitting, leading to the 911 call du jour, cannot support these steps,” he wrote.

Keyes wrote he has been disappointed in medics he has trained who “fail to understand why” he tells his crew not to lift the patient when the patient died trying to walk.

“I am not willing to give our health for him. He has asked for this, DEMANDED it for decades! Why should we ruin a loved one’s back for him to keep him alive a bit longer? He will still die, sooner or later. Why give me or my Brother’s back for him when he never bothered to care for himself? I prefer to let him die today if necessary.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5548142&forum_id=2/#47795235)