Since I have worked at Osceola Regional Medical Center in the Emergency Room as a Paramedic, I have followed this case but haven’t been able to blog about it yet.
This case has baffled me from the very beginning, when I first started working at Osceola Regional my badge was delayed over 2 weeks because they had a problem verifying my paramedic certification. Apparently Bluefield State College told the hospital I had never been a student there. But thankfully Bluefield State was finally able to verify that I was a paramedic and I was able to start working right away.
So it baffles me that someone was able to do this at Osceola Regional.
But none the less Matthew Scheidt was able to walk in and out of Human Resources and changed from a teenager to Physician Assistant. And even worse before his trial started in Osceola County, Matthew Scheidt decided to change professions and then decided to impersonate a police officer.
Character witnesses for Scheidt said that the teen’s problem was he was just a little too eager to be a person of respect.
I don’t know if I could testify in a court of law that he was just a little too eager, this teenager took on a role where people’s lives were at stake. He even was performing CPR on one patient. Which sounded odd, doctors and PA’s very seldom done CPR, since they were the ones running the code (directing everyone else on what to do or what drug to administer)
Even as baffling as this case has been its even more baffling he walked out of court with only a 1 year’s sentence. Minus time served already.
The prosecuting attorney was asking for at least a 7 year sentence and Scheidt faced a maximum of 20 years.
“He has a history and a pattern of being deceptive in roles of authority. Whether or not this is a sufficient warning to him to stop, I guess we will see," said Orange-Osceola County Assistant State Prosecuting Attorney Sarah Freeman.
Of course Scheidt claims it was all the hospitals fault for issuing him the wrong ID. Even as a paramedic, I would know enough to return that ID because an ID of a PA would put me in a position of providing care that I wasn't allowed to do. But the 17 year old Scheidt just want the authority and respect.
While the judge in the case felt there was no malice on Scheidt's part, he did think Scheidt knew completely what he was doing. Hello Judge? How could there be no malice on his part? He got an ID badge for a position he knew nothing about, keep the ID, and went to work and performed patient care on actual people that went to the emergency room for professional medical care. If that’s not malice I don’t know what is.
Malice
1. Desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness: the malice and spite of a lifelong enemy.
2. Law. Evil intent on the part of a person who commits a wrongful act injurious to others.
Performing CPR on a person acting as a PA with a fatal outcome of the code and knowing all along he was there impersonating a PA.
Scheidt received a year in Osceola County jail for each of the two counts, but he will serve that time concurrently. The judge is also subtracting time already served: 264 days. That's 101 days.
Scheidt also must serve a year of community control for each count. He also gets eight years of probation. He also needs to seek a mental health evaluation.
In addition to his actions, he caused a lot of problems for a lot of people by his actions. His actions effected a lot of my friends from the hospital, some were terminated over his actions and I don’t think anyone will ever fully recover from the actions of a teenager that was a little too eager to be a person of respect and a person of authority.
It should be interesting to see how the impersonation of a police officer case turns out.
One would think that while out waiting for his trial in Osceola County, he would know better than to be out impersonating anyone else, but that’s not the case with Scheidt. I only hope he receives the maximum sentence in his other trial.
This teenager has issues and because of his issues, lives of many have been impacted and forever changed.
