.An EMS crew's failure to check defibrillation equipment before a call does not constitute gross negligence, according to a recent unpublished opinion of the Court of Appeals.

Though the ruling is unpublished, which means it does not set a precedent for other cases, it does signal the first time an appellate court in Michigan has interpreted the Emergency Medical Services Act in this way. The case could assist EMS defendants in providing a persuasive argument to the court in the event their actions are challenged under the gross negligence standard.

The case, entitled Young v. Houghton Lake Ambulance Service (Ct. App. Docket #235474) involved an EMS response to a patient who had suffered cardiac arrest. Upon arriving to the scene, the responders attempted to restart the decedent's heart with a defibrillator, but the machine did not function. A second unit responded to the scene, but was unable to revive the decedent.

Plaintiff sued, claiming the ambulance service acted grossly negligent by failing to test and maintain the defibrillator. The Emergency Medical Services Act defines gross negligence as: "conduct so reckless as to demonstrate a substantial lack of concern for whether an injury results."

The Court of Appeals panel found no gross negligence in this instance. The panel found that "[a] factfinder could not conclude that the alleged negligence of failing to conduct daily tests of the equipment was so reckless as to demonstrate a substantial lack of concern for whether an injury results where the machine was subject to some degree of inspection and had never malfunctioned in the past."

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