PAX Centurion - September / October 2014

Page 34 • PAX CENTURION • September/October 2014 617-989-BPPA (2772) Stop by our store located at 53 Plain Street (rear) in Braintree or call us at (781) 843-5293. When your business or personal needs require custom embroidery or screen printing,we hope you choose The Embroidery Clinic for high quality and competitive pricing. EMTs are not punching bags Boston EMS Corner: Ed McCarthy I t came out of nowhere. A crack into my face, right below my nose. Before it even registered, I was on my back, staring up at the sky. Nothing spun, I didn’t black out or anything. I didn’t even see stars, or the little tweety-birds from a cartoon. I was dimly aware of my partner diving past me, and a wrestling match ensuing somewhere below me, by my boots. I’d been punched in the mouth. Again. It was a ‘man down,’ a simple enough call. Dozens are done by Boston EMS every day. He was on the sidewalk, his lower legs onto into the road. A passer-by on his cell phone had called from their passing car, and kept on going. We pulled up a few moments later. No one else was around. My partner and I approached the man. The tandem smells of alcohol and urine were evident, even from a few feet away. Seeing no obvious injury, I gave the man a gentle shake on the shoulder, and a shout to see if he was arousable, or in deeper trouble than it at first seemed. He grumbled a few slurred obscenities, and pushed me away. I explained who we were, and pointed to the ambulance, sitting nearby, engine running, and all lights aflare. I told him someone called 911 for him, and we were here to check if he was okay. He grumbled some more, and..... well..... told me to go do something that I don’t think is anatomically possible. His statement, however was telling. If he could put that thought together, he prob- ably wasn’t so bad off. I offered to help him up. He was still laying half in the street. I took his left arm by the hand. That was it. Bang! I sat up from my half-daze, and watched as my partner and this patient grappled with each other. I scrambled to get up, and help, abandoning the instinct to feel around my face to see if I still had all my teeth. By the time I got to my feet, was over. Although he had a decent right hook, he was too ‘altered’ to stand, and my partner had quickly gotten control of the intoxicated patient, and restrained him. Screaming more threats and obscenities at us, we loaded him into the ambulance. Why he gets a hospital evaluation instead of a jail cell is beyond me, but whatever. This is Boston. There were no police, or anyone else on scene. We had him, and like a prize-winning tuna, we weren’t letting him go. I was bleeding from the lip a little bit, but it was negligible. He howled and screamed all the way to the hospital. He was going to get us. He would have our jobs. At that moment, I felt like giving it to him. Didn’t he realize that if he had my job, he’d have to deal with people like HIMSELF? Not every patient that assaults a crew is an “assailant.” Some are diabetic, or head-injured, or otherwise ill, and have no control over their actions. The demarcation line is drawn at individuals who intend to do harm. Assaults on EMTs are commonplace. Not only in Boston, but across the Nation. It is estimated that there are 700,000 assaults on EMTs and Paramedics annually (Boston Herald 2005). The bureau of labor and statistics estimates assaults on healthcare workers occur at a rate of 8.3 per 10,000 - four times greater than all private sector industries. A study in 2002 by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention determined that violent situations occurred in five per-