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For me personally, I would want to call a family member/etc to say goodbye, but I would not want them present. At all. As much as I might love someone, want to hold their hand one more time, let the last thing I see be their face- I would not want my death to be the last thing THEY see.

If the person is not already dead, here's why the protocol is what it is...

You really, REALLY don't want to see a loved one code in front of you. I promise you. No amount of "preparing" can assuage you from having to see a true trauma code. This guy seemed to just lose all his blood volume when the compression was released, so he didn't go through a huge production, more than likely. If he did, she'd have detailed that. When a person has a heart attack or starts to code from injuries like the guy in the story, the things the body goes through are not something you want to see.

When a person's heart is failing and they are dying because of blood loss, etc., they vomit, gag, can spasm a lot, they piss and defecate, and make terrible noises. It is not like what you see on TV, where they just shock them and watch the monitor and they die.

So here's the thing to consider:

Do you want to see your loved one naked (yes, they are stripped unless it is literally impossible to remove the clothing), gagging and vomiting as they die, possibly flailing a bit if they haven't fully lost consciousness yet, maybe screaming... there's a sheet over their gential area, but it's mostly there because as they die they will piss and shit everywhere. If they're male, they will normally have an erection while coding, especially if spinal injury was incurred.

Trust me- you do not want to see your loved one go through a code. You may get to say "goodbye" before they go, but your last memory will be them going through the terrible ordeal I outlined above.

This is what the wife may have arrived to see, had the guy started dying less pleasantly than he eventually did.

That's why it's against protocol, because of how terribly traumatic it is. Professional EMS providers can be deeply affected by the right code, let alone people who actually knew the patient.