Assault?

[nsmedic393]

Kinda funny and very true story......

I'm a pretty big guy (250lbs), I'm trained in self defence and I worked security in a really big bar for about four years. The worst i ever got was a punch in the nose when I wasn't looking.

Last year, while working EMS I had the absolute crap beat out of me by a little 100lb female. She was having some sort of drug induced psychosis, we had no indication that she was violent, we were called for a seizure and as I aproached she turned and beat the crap out of me. I couldn't do a thing. Me and my partner faught her to the ground and eventually she calmed down, but not before she kicked me in the head about 10 times, and the belly and the nuts. They took me to the ER in my own amublance, it sucked.

Moral of the story is expect the unexpected, be very very carefull.

[Guest DELETED]

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[WannaBEMT]

Thanks for the info guys, this is something I have been worried about. Sorry about the search feature, I am new so I have not figured out all the bells and whistles.

Jenn

[Dustdevil]

Sorry about the search feature, I am new so I have not figured out all the bells and whistles.

It's covered in the big New Members- Read This First!!" topic that you apparently didn't read first.

But yeah, as usual, I would echo what ncmedic309 has to say. There is no such thing as a safe scene. There is no such thing as a secure scene. And police presence is quite meaningless. Use your head. If cops were such a securing factor, they wouldn't be getting shot and assaulted themselves so often now, would they? The majority of the times that I have been shot at or assaulted in the field, it has been with the police present. And the other times were completely out of left field. Old ladies with OBS. Middle aged COPDers with steroid psychoisis. Unconscious persons that woke up to be drunks looking for a fight. Low priority "general medical" patients that turned out to be cracked out.

Of course, I firmly believe that the concept of "scene safety" is completely mistaught and misunderstood in EMT school, and it ultimately contributes to mortality and morbidity among providers. I see all these rookies verbalizing "scene safety" as a mantra, but they obviously haven't the slightest concept of what it really means. Their instructors aren't giving them scenarios that involve scene safety threats to where they understand exactly what they are verbalizing. Scene safety isn't something you say. Scene safety is something you do. And if you think that wearing gloves and waiting for PD is all you need to do to keep yourself safe in this business, Darwin is just waiting to make you a statistic.

You are a hell of a lot more likely to get run over by a car at an MVA than you are to get shot while caring for a shooting victim. Yet the same people who stage half a mile away from those shooting runs don't give a second thought to walking around an accident scene on the freeway with no police directing traffic. Now tell me, have you ever seen a medic park half a mile from the MVA and wait for the police to show up before making the scene? Nope.

Don't even get me started on "scene safety." I am at the point that I believe more than half the people that get killed in this business were asking for it.

[EMSnewbie]

:wink: The only time I was ever "assulted" was by a 98 year old woman who was agitated that I was taking her on the stretcher. She was very confused, insisted she was 19 years old and her daddy was coming to get her and very upset that I was disturbing her. So the most dangerous patients are sometimes the sweet little elderly ladies As for EDP's I usually sit behind them so they can't get the best of me in the event they decide to get violent I just try to think in my head potential ways they could hurt me and avoid it if I can. You cannot hit a patient or physically restrain them so the most important part of the job is protecting yourself or your partner from harm. If you think a patient has a potential for violence or you have to have an unstable drunk or EDP in your bus my suggestion is request PD backup. We once had a guy who was BIG not fat but muscular and about 6'3 and VERY unstable. They tried to send a rookie cop 2 weeks out of the academy with me and the EDP I refused and requested more backup before transporting this patient wasn't critical just going to a psych er. They gave me my backup and I may have annoyed some people but my partner and I got there in one piece

[Richard B the EMT]

In mentioning the "Expect the unexpected,"

When you expect the unexpected, you'll never be disappointed!

[ffpm41]

Remember to only use enough force to stop the attack, and always notify LE and document, document, document!