The case
The owner, at U16: “This reminds me of an experience I had working as an EMT-B on an ALS unit, supporting an EMT-P. We were working a code and the medic urgently requested a particular medication. I had checked over the unit so I knew the medication was present in the med box, but I couldn’t remember where. after failing to find it for several minutes, the medic changed their request. after the call, i was chastized to the effect of: ‘If I can’t find it, it isn’t there.’”
What it can show
That presence, knowing presence and timely deployment come apart (A17 §1: present, yes; known present, yes; location known, not quickly enough; deployed in time, no). A17’s counterfactuals vary one thing at a time: a labelled compartment (the environment), a memorized location (the individual), a partner who knows (the team), more time (the deadline), a standard layout (training), an easy-to-find drug no longer indicated (relevance). A17 §4 added that search spends what it needs: “Knowing when to stop searching is part of knowing how to use a resource.”
What it cannot show
A17 §9: “why retrieval failed, whether the requested intervention would have affected the outcome, or whether the paramedic changed the request because of the delay rather than other clinical considerations.” Nor which stage failed, cue, recall or search (A19 §3), and not that the failure was the EMT’s rather than the system’s (A17 §8). The medication and the clinical details are not recorded and should not be supplied.
Standing
A16 and A17 proposed documented, “as a firsthand report”. The record’s
documented asks for sources a reader can check. The owner’s report is a
source for what the owner recalls, and the event’s relevant facts are
taken on it here, which is stipulated. The owner may judge otherwise.