{"id":16731,"date":"2021-09-22T01:40:36","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T01:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16731"},"modified":"2021-09-21T19:48:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T19:48:33","slug":"in-the-line-of-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/22\/in-the-line-of-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"In The Line Of Duty"},"content":{"rendered":"

GoFundMe campaign passes $22,000 as workman\u2019s comp claim is denied<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The longtime, beloved Blaine County animal control officer who suffered life-threatening injuries when he fell down a flight of steps while on duty is showing signs of improvement. How he\u2019s going to pay for the costs of his care and recovery, however, is not.<\/p>\n

Paul Ramm is a 15-year veteran of the Blaine County Sheriff\u2019s Office where he served as the sole animal control officer, among many other duties he willingly performed for the organization over the years. On Aug. 17, while on duty, he stopped to use the restroom at a friend\u2019s home. Upon leaving, he fell down a flight of stairs, suffering multiple brain bleeds, skull fractures on the left side, and a nicked carotid artery before he was placed on life-support ventilation. According to his daughter, Janell Porter, workman\u2019s compensation insurance says Ramm\u2019s accident does not qualify for coverage since he was not performing a specific work duty. <\/span><\/p>\n

For Porter, the matter is clear\u2014her dad was on duty and radioed into dispatch with his location and that he was taking a quick break. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe never signed out of service. Workers are allowed to take 10-minute breaks every few hours,\u201d Porter said. \u201cHe was on duty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Porter said the family wants to appeal the decision and they are currently working with the sheriff\u2019s office and an independent resource that advocates for first responders in matters like this. <\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Porter and the rest of Ramm\u2019s immediate family are preparing now for both health and financial worst-case scenarios. The GoFundMe campaign they set up last month to raise $50,000 had just passed the $22,000 mark as of press deadline Tuesday. <\/span><\/p>\n

Medical Update<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Ramm\u2019s condition is grim, but improving \u201cbeyond expectations\u201d of his doctors, said Porter, who is no stranger to the rigors of neurological recovery. For years, she had worked as a registered medical assistant and front desk lead for a neurology specialist in the Valley and currently she works for St. Luke\u2019s as a patient access specialist. In other words, she\u2019s hopeful for her dad, but she\u2019s managing her expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding her father\u2019s brain injury prognosis, Porter noted the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25cf Most patients show 80% of their overall improvement in the first 30 days<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25cf Most patients show the remaining 20% of their overall improvement over the next year<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25cf Ramm\u2019s respiratory distress has improved dramatically and his medical care team removed the ventilation machine and capped his tracheostomy (breathing tube)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25cf Ramm is showing slow motor-skill improvements every day<\/p>\n

\u25cf Ramm is opening his eyes more often but still isn\u2019t completely tracking movement<\/p>\n

\u25cf It is not uncommon for patients with Ramm\u2019s injuries to also suffer rapid declines in improvement<\/p>\n

Managed Chaos<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

As reported in the Sept. 8 issue of Wood River Weekly, Ramm\u2019s family had been thrown into chaos after learning of his fall. Porter was staying in Boise with her mother in a motorhome parked in Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center\u2019s RV lot. Porter and her brother, Justin Ramm, would then travel back and forth between the Wood River and Treasure valleys so that one of the kids was with their parents at all times.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, Porter said, St. Luke\u2019s has provided work-from-home accommodations for her, and her mother has signed over power of attorney to make various authorizations easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Blaine County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Ramm\u2019s duties, according to Porter, are being spread out amongst the Sheriff\u2019s Office, Hailey Police, and other coordinating agencies, or just not done at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was an animal control officer but he was a jack of all trades, too,\u201d Porter said. \u201cHe was even managing all of the vehicle maintenance there. He has always been that kind of generous, helpful person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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GoFundMe campaign passes $22,000 as workman\u2019s comp claim is denied By Eric Valentine The longtime, beloved Blaine County animal control officer who suffered life-threatening injuries when he fell down a flight of steps while on duty is showing signs of improvement. How he\u2019s going to pay for the costs of his care and recovery, however, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,72,88,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-accident","8":"category-community","9":"category-local","10":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16734,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16731\/revisions\/16734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}