Pennsylvania Good Samaritan Law: AED, Naloxone, and Limits

Pennsylvania’s Good Samaritan law protects people who provide emergency aid in good faith from being sued for unintended harm, and in a few specific situations shields them from criminal charges as well. The protection covers untrained bystanders, off-duty medical professionals, people who use an AED, and people who administer naloxone during an opioid overdose. It disappears if you acted with intent to injure or with gross negligence.

Who Is Protected When You Stop to Help

The broadest statute is 42 Pa. C.S. § 8332. It covers any person who provides emergency care, first aid, or rescue at the scene of an emergency or crime. No medical training is required. Stop to help someone who has collapsed on the sidewalk, pull a driver from a wrecked car, or start CPR on a stranger, and this law shields you from civil liability for any resulting harm. The two exceptions: intent to injure, and grossly negligent conduct.¹

The same statute protects you if you transport the injured person to a hospital or other medical facility. Emergency response providers — federal, state, and local personnel such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS workers — fall under the same protection. Hospital emergency room staff are specifically excluded from that category, because those workers operate within a professional healthcare setting where normal malpractice standards apply.¹

A separate statute, 42 Pa. C.S. § 8331, covers physicians, other healing arts practitioners, and registered nurses who provide emergency care outside their usual work environment. A doctor who happens on a car accident, or who responds to a police call, is immune from civil liability for the care given, subject to the same exceptions for intentional harm and gross negligence. The statute defines “good faith” to include a reasonable belief that the situation is urgent enough that care should not wait until the patient reaches a hospital. That definition matters because it protects the judgment calls a professional has to make in the field, even ones that look questionable in hindsight.²

Situations the Law Addresses Separately

Using an AED

Using a portable defibrillator on someone in cardiac arrest is covered by 42 Pa. C.S. § 8331.2. Anyone who acquires, maintains, or uses an AED in good faith during an emergency is immune from civil damages, subject to the usual exceptions for intentional harm and gross negligence.³

This statute has strings the general bystander law does not. Expected users should have completed AED training approved by the American Red Cross, American Heart Association, or another Department of Health-approved standard; the device must be maintained per the manufacturer’s guidelines; the user should immediately contact EMS; and relevant AED data must be shared with EMS or other healthcare providers on request. One more limit: the AED immunity does not protect someone who obstructs or interferes with arriving EMS personnel or a health professional trying to take over.³

Giving Naloxone During an Overdose

Under 35 P.S. § 780-113.8(f), a person who administers naloxone in good faith and with reasonable care to someone they believe is experiencing an opioid overdose is immune from criminal prosecution, civil liability, and professional licensing sanctions. The protection extends to individuals, law enforcement agencies, and fire departments. Completing approved training and promptly seeking additional medical help creates a legal presumption that you acted with reasonable care.⁴

A separate provision at § 780-113.8(e) protects licensed healthcare professionals who prescribe or dispense naloxone in good faith. That immunity disappears only if the professional acted with intent to harm or with reckless indifference to a substantial risk of harm.⁴

Calling 911 for an Overdose

A different statute, 35 P.S. § 780-113.7, protects people who call for help during an overdose. It shields the caller from prosecution for certain drug possession offenses so that fear of arrest does not stop someone from dialing 911. It is not about civil liability for giving naloxone. To qualify, you have to stay with the overdose victim and cooperate with police. The immunity does not extend to drug delivery, drug-induced homicide, or crimes outside the listed possession offenses, and Pennsylvania does not grant immunity from arrest itself; the protection kicks in at the prosecution stage.⁵⁶

What You Have to Do to Keep the Protection

Three conditions run through all of Pennsylvania’s Good Samaritan statutes.

You must act in good faith. That means a genuine intent to help, without expectation of payment or personal gain. In the medical professional statute, good faith is defined to include a reasonable belief that the emergency is serious enough that care should not wait for hospitalization. Evidence of an ulterior motive, or that you were not genuinely trying to help, unwinds the protection.²

The care must be given at the scene of the emergency, or while transporting the person to medical facilities. The law does not cover non-emergency treatment or care delivered in a professional healthcare setting where the provider has an established duty to treat the patient. An ER doctor treating a walk-in patient is not a Good Samaritan; that is ordinary medical practice.

Your actions must be reasonable for the circumstances. Someone with basic first aid training is expected to follow standard technique. The standard is not perfection — mistakes made under pressure are generally protected. What crosses the line is conduct a reasonable person would recognize as dangerous or wildly inappropriate.

Consent fits in here too. If the person you are trying to help is conscious and able to communicate, ask before providing care. When someone is unconscious or otherwise unable to respond, the law applies implied consent: it assumes a reasonable person would want emergency medical care if they could ask for it. That assumption holds unless the person previously and explicitly refused treatment. A conscious person who tells you not to touch them is refusing care, and you should respect that.

Where the Protection Ends

Two categories of behavior void immunity across every Pennsylvania Good Samaritan statute: intentional harm and gross negligence. Intentional harm is straightforward. Gross negligence is the grayer line: it goes beyond ordinary carelessness into conduct showing severe disregard for the safety of others. A bystander who attempts an improvised surgical procedure they have no training for, instead of stabilizing the person and calling 911, is the kind of case a court might treat as gross negligence. Imperfect CPR performed under stress is not.

The protection also does not apply where you already have a professional duty to provide care. Nursing home staff, on-duty paramedics at their assigned station, and daycare workers responsible for children in their care cannot claim Good Samaritan immunity for doing the job they are already obligated to do. That is why § 8332 explicitly excludes hospital emergency facilities and related personnel from its “emergency response provider” definition.¹

One exception catches people off guard. Section 8332 covers the emergency care you give and the fact of transporting someone, but drivers, including ambulance and emergency rescue vehicle drivers, are not relieved of liability for negligent driving on the way to medical care. Loading a patient and riding along is protected. Causing a crash on the way to the ER is not.¹

The scope of protection is mostly civil. Sections 8331, 8331.2, and 8332 shield you from lawsuits seeking money damages. They do not create a general criminal defense. If emergency assistance somehow crossed into conduct a prosecutor treats as reckless endangerment or assault, the civil immunity statutes would not be the answer. The naloxone statute is the notable exception, immunizing good-faith administration from both civil and criminal exposure, and the overdose reporting statute provides its own limited criminal immunity for specific drug possession offenses.⁴⁵

Pennsylvania Does Not Require You to Help

Pennsylvania does not impose a general duty to rescue. You cannot be charged with a crime or sued for walking past an emergency without getting involved. The Good Samaritan statutes are designed to remove barriers for people who choose to help, not to compel action from those who don’t. The legal reasoning is deliberate: forcing untrained people to intervene could produce more injuries, not fewer, so the law instead tries to tip the scales toward action by protecting honest mistakes.

When to Talk to a Lawyer

Even with these protections, disputes can still arise after someone provides emergency aid. A lawsuit can be filed even where immunity ultimately applies, because whether the responder acted in good faith or crossed into gross negligence is fact-specific and often resolved by a court. Anyone facing a claim after providing emergency assistance should consult a Pennsylvania attorney who can evaluate how the specific facts line up with the relevant statute. Medical professionals who give off-duty emergency care face added complexity where Good Samaritan immunity meets their professional licensing obligations.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42 Pa.C.S.A. 8332 – Emergency Response Provider and Bystander Good Samaritan Civil Immunity
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42 Chapter 83 Section 8331 – Medical Good Samaritan Civil Immunity
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Judicial Code (42 Pa.C.S.) – Good Samaritan Civil Immunity
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 35 P.S. 780-113.8 – Drug Overdose Medication
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 35 P.S. 780-113.7 – Drug Overdose Response Immunity
6
Pennsylvania Department of Health. Pennsylvania Good Samaritan Law Fact Sheet