Aylesbury ambulance chaser - a night in the life of a paramedic
21 April 2010
By Richard Hartley-Parkinson
It is hard to grasp just how much trouble alcohol causes in society without talking to the people who mop up the after effects.
In the one night that The Bucks Herald spent with paramedic Adam Broom and Kev Proctor, emergency care assistant, we picked one girl up from an alley behind Mendoza's, one who had started choking in her sleep in Stoke Mandeville and a man who said he drank 10 pints before crashing his car into a ditch.
These three cases accounted for about half of our 12-hour shift. The first call out was to the man who needed rescuing from a ditch.
Police surveying the scene said that he was lucky not to have gone through a hedge and flipped his car.
The ambulance crew said that their job is not to judge the man for possibly drink driving but to patch him up and take him to hospital.
At the scene there were three people from South Central Ambulance Service, two police officers and an off-duty doctor who just happened to be passing.
An emergency vehicle on call to a cinema in Hertfordshire has been vandalised.
Paramedics were called to Empire Cinema on Jarman Way in Hemel Hempstead on Tuesday evening.
19 APR 10 BBC NEWS
While they were dealing with the incident someone let the air out of one of the tyres of the white Ford Focus.
The car had to be towed away and a new emergency vehicle called to the scene. An East of England Ambulance spokesman said it was a "senseless act".
Gary Sanderson said: "First and foremost, our service cannot believe that someone has the audacity to deflate a tyre on an emergency vehicle whilst they are trying to stabilise a seriously ill patient.
"Words cannot describe how the attending paramedics felt after they returned to collect their response car and saw the flat tyre."
Hertfordshire Police are investigating the incident.
Paramedic assaulted while treating drunk youth in Caernarfon
Apr 15 2010 By Alex Hickey
A WOMAN paramedic has been assaulted after going to the aid of a drunk youth who had collapsed.
The disgraceful attack took place at a popular tourist spot in Caernarfon on Saturday night.
According to Caernarfon town councillor Richard Bonner Pritchard, who witnessed the aftermath of the incident, the lone paramedic had been treating a drunken girl who had collapsed near the promenade at Porth yr Aur.
The girl was part of a group of eight or nine young people who had been drinking heavily at the spot for most of the night.
Cllr Pritchard said: "I think the police were called three times that night as the group were getting rowdier and rowdier. At about 9.30pm a paramedic came down on her own to treat one of the girls who had collapsed but the girl’s friends (also girls) then tried to drag the paramedic off their friend.
"Fortunately, the police arrived shortly afterwards and the incident was resolved but it’s not the first time that we have had problems with underage drinking at Porth yr Aur.
"And, again on Saturday they had left such a mess behind with broken bottles and young people urinating in the archway.
"This has happened on the first time we get a good spell of weather and it will only get worse as the nights get longer unless the police nip it in the bud before we move into summer."
A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "We can confirm that a paramedic was the victim of an alleged assault in Caernarfon on Saturday night while at work. The matter has been referred to the police who are now investigating.
"The (Welsh Ambulance) Trust condemns acts of violence and aggression against its staff and NHS colleagues. We uphold a zero tolerance policy against this form of abuse and do our utmost to report this behaviour to the police."
Drunken charity shop worker dialled 999 because she was only wearing a 'little cardigan' and felt cold
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:21 PM on 30th April 2010
Elizabeth Adams, 46, had been drinking lager and vodka before making the call in the early hours of the morning from outside a Manchester nightclub.
An ambulance duly turned up and she was then taken to hospital. When staff told her there was nothing wrong with her, she became abusive and screamed racist remarks at staff.
She finally agreed she did not need treatment but shouted: 'I am cold and I want to see a doctor.'
Adams, from Wythenshawe, then refused several times to leave the A&E department at Wythenshawe Hospital.
Police were then called and she was escorted out of the hospital.
Outside, she turned her anger on one of the police officers, punching him twice in the chest.
Adams said after the hearing: 'I was cold and shivering - I was only wearing a little cardigan - so I rang for the ambulance.
'In hindsight, it was wrong to do what I did, but I'm trying to forget about it. I just lashed out at the officer - I didn't mean it and it was only because of the drink.'
Adams pleaded guilty to charges of racially aggravated threatening behaviour and police assault when she appeared before Manchester magistrates on April 21.
District Judge Paul Richardson branded her behaviour ‘appalling’ and gave her a two-month jail term, suspended for a year.
