DENVER — Aurora officials are debating how to regulate the use of sedatives by paramedics following the high-profile 2019 death of Elijah McClain, who died after a violent encounter with police that ended with paramedics injecting him with ketamine.
As two Aurora paramedics await trial for felony charges, including manslaughter, negligent homicide and assault, City Council members are grappling with how to manage the use of new medications that can be used as sedatives, including whether they should be allowed to be administered or if chemical restraints should be banned altogether. City Council members are expected to vote on a proposal Monday.
The administrative decision to include a new sedative — droperidol — into firefighters’ emergency services protocols and the pushback from the firefighters’ union had prompted City Council members Danielle Jurinsky and Curtis Gardner to call for a three-year moratorium on all new sedatives at a City Council study session Monday night.
