A paramedic has been hospitalised after being punched and spat at in a horrific attack while treating a patient.
The latest assault comes just hours after ambulance workers across the country slammed a judge’s decision to let two women escape jail time for assaulting a 63-year-old paramedic.
Now, another victim has been left with back and facial injuries after being attacked while attending a call-out in Epping, Ambulance Victoria has confirmed to Starts at 60.
The unnamed ambulance worker was spat at and punched by his patient, while trying to wheel him into the vehicle to receive treatment.
“Paramedics were called to a residential address in Epping about 12:40am to a man in his 20s who was reportedly unconscious after drinking excessive alcohol,” a spokesman for Ambulance Victoria said in a statement. “On attempting to rouse the patient, he woke and became verbally aggressive and abusive towards the crew, spitting at them.”
Despite the violent behaviour, the paramedics continued to treat the man and gave him some sedation to calm him down. It failed to have an effect immediately however, and while he was being wheeled on a stretcher to the ambulance, he “lunged at one of the paramedics, punching him in the face”.
“This caused the stretcher to tip, and the paramedic grabbed the stretcher to stop it from falling resulting in the paramedic taking the full weight of the stretcher and the patient in his outstretched arms,” the spokesman explained.
“The crew transported the patient to hospital, where the assaulted paramedic experienced severe back pain. He was treated, before being admitted to hospital for pain management and further assessment.”
Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker has since hit out at the attack, and wrote on Twitter: “Every 50 hours an @AmbulanceVic paramedic is physically or verbally assaulted as they help those in need. These are our friends, wives, husbands, sons and daughters. #ItsNeverOK #ZeroTolerance.”
It came just hours after another paramedic broke down in tears and admitted he’s “gutted” after the two women who assaulted him successfully appealed their jail terms.
Amanda Warren, 33, and Caris Underwood, 20, were originally sentenced to jail sentences of six and four months, after pleading guilty to causing injury to 63-year-old Paul Judd, multiple news outlets report. However, they reportedly appealed their jail terms in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday, and will no longer have to spend any time behind bars for the assault.
Under Victorian law, anyone who intentionally injures an emergency worker must be imprisoned for at least six months, unless there are special circumstances.
Judge Cotterell reportedly told the court that Warren and Underwood’s difficult childhoods and young families meant they shouldn’t be jailed.
It sparked a huge protest, as ambulance workers began spraying graffiti messages across their vehicles in anger. Photos, shared on social media, show ambulances with “It’s not OK to assault paramedics” sprayed across windscreens and windows.
Organisation ‘Fair Go paramedic’ wrote on Twitter: “Paramedic after Paramedic, Crew after Crew, branch after branch, we all stand in defiance to today’s ruling.”
Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy also weighed in, and tweeted his anger. He wrote: “A complete failure of the Victorian justice system.”
Judd was punched and left with a broken foot in the drunk assault in 2016, the court previously heard, as he and another paramedic tried to treat a patient. He has reportedly been unable to return to work since, and has required multiple surgeries.
3AW reports the women have instead been ordered to serve community corrections orders.