Florida Paramedics Allegedly Used Incapacitated Patients for Selfie Competition

Investigators initially identified a total of 41 patients.

The two would take videos and photos of themselves with patients who were “intubated, sedated, or otherwise unconscious at the time”, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

Dubois was charged with two counts of interception and disclosure of oral communications after being arrested on Thursday morning.

Active warrants have been issued for Christopher Wimmer, 33, who will face seven felony counts.

Officials in Oklaloosa County, Florida, said in a news conference on Thursday that they believe the two emergency medical services (EMS) paramedics waged an 8-month “selfie war”, sending the pictures to each other and to three other people.

Numerous rest were taken while patients were unconscious. “It was a sick, juvenile game I don’t know any other way to describe it”, said Okaloosa Sheriff Larry Ashley, according to WKRG. Wimmer also faces a misdemeanour battery charge for holding open the eyelid of a sedated patient. Two are since deceased and three appear consensual. The remaining 36 patients include 19 women and 17 men.

OSCO says one of the victims was an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy.

“This has more to do with an invasion of privacy and respect than anything”, Sheriff Ashley told WJHG. “They were frustrated, they were hurt and their biggest fear were that these things made their way to social media”.

Investigators say the photos and videos were shared with some EMS and non-EMS personnel, although the release says the number of EMS personnel who were shown the photos was “very small”. Dubois was sacked on May 20, and Wimmer also resigned that day.

Police began investigating Dubois and Wimmer in early May after EMS coworkers complained that Wimmer was sharing “unprofessional and compromising selfies” of patients under his care.

The pictures were taken between September 2015 and April 2016.