HAve you been battered by a patient or bystander?

Were you attacked and injured by a patient or bystander? (See first reply).

  • I have been attacked and injured by a patient or bystander on the job requiring medical treatment.

    Votes: 7 10.9%

  • I have been attacked and injured by a patient or bystander on the job and did not require treatment.

    Votes: 40 62.5%

  • I have never been attacked and injured on the job because I used or threatened bodily force.

    Votes: 3 4.7%

  • I have never been attacked and injured on the job and I have not threatened or used bodily force.

    Votes: 14 21.9%
  • Total voters
    64
mycrofft

mycrofft

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Cutting to ths chase, and no lying or exaggerations from our armchair colleagues.;)

I am not debating whether martial arts or concealed weapons permits are a good idea. Just the raw data.

Please make comments if needed about how long ago your incident(s) happened, how far apart multiple events occurred, degree of injury (validated by a physician if serious), etc.
PLEASE DO NOT GET ON A SOAPBOX. THIS IS JUST TO GATHER DATA. AND NO SECOND HAND REPORTS.

PS: Please tell us if you experienced injury despite yor use or threat of bodily harm? Was your threat credible?
 
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I had to answer ye s to #3 becaues of my workplace.

Presence of officers was a constant threat to the imates.
Incidents where I was facing serious assault: in 22 years, maybe two, one was insane, the other was in DT's.
 
Mine was just recently after working at this place over a year, and was partially do to carelessness. It was a psych pt, on the gurney and we hadn't got him restrained other than seatbelts yet, and i was standing next to him and he freaked out swinging his arms around and punched me in the face.
 
Good point...length of employment.

I'm betting it's like motorcycles, most likely while new at it. Mine were.
 
A postictal patient took a swing at my preceptor and I when I was in school. Luckily he was an older gentleman and we could just hold his arms down till he snapped out of it. Aside from that, the patients I've encountered that would have been physically abusive towards myself or my partner were restrained to the cot anyway for being violent towards PD or FD.
 
I've been kicked, hit, punched, slapped and headbutted... all in EMT and Medic clinicals. Always when doing it for free, never when being paid :P

Most recent one was the postictal patient who was Tased and we wrestled.
 
There should be another option;

I have been attacked and NOT injured by a patient or bystander on the job and did not require treatment. And did not require use of force by anyone.
 
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I have been "attacked" by a dibetic or two and a DT pt. You can't really blame either of those kinds though. Nothing serious though. Scrapes, jammed finger, etc.
 
an EDP slapped my *** once as we were walking out of a structure..... not entirely sure why......

a combative drunk drugged up skell spit on me while wresting with 3 cops, two medics, my partner and I (he got me on the leg, which resulted in a police charge (one of many he received that night)and a page long incident report to my boss), to secure him in the reeves so we could carry him out and transport him to the hospital.

I have had a couple attempt to swing at me, but they are often too drunk to actually connect on a punch.

never been hospitalized, nor required treatment in the ER. but I have been out of work three times for work related injuries (twice for my back, and once I was out for 3 hours after getting scratched by a cat).
 
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Yes, I have been, but nothing bad. I've had a brick hurled at me, after which the patient showed me a collection of hand-painted rocks, and I've had my little fingers crushed against part of the cot by a massive megalodon. Nothing bad at all.

I did have one call where my partner was attacked and had his wrist fractured and dislocated; that was with LEO present, and the officer was also injured. None of us saw it coming.
 
Had ambulance car-jacked while loaded with a pateint. Bystander was an uninvolved party.

I would still like to point out......... the CDC, OSHA, ENA, Dr. Brian Maguire, NAEMT and many states inccuding Missouri, Wyoming (they are two I quote) and others have conducted studies all showing the same thing........ an alarming number of assaults on EMS and the healthcare profession.

The number of assaults are crazy......... so even though it is a well documented cause of lost work hours "on-the-job injury"........

You still get "proper lifting and moving" class....to prevent back injuires, Bloodborne Pathogens and plenty of PPE to prevent infectious diseases...... EVOC to prevent accidents, a bright reflective vest so you don't get run over.........

The number one injury causing incident is assault........ why is escape training not a part of every EMS program in the nation?
 
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Is there anyone who has been in EMS or worked in an emergency setting for any length of time that has not been?
 
I was assaulted but not battered.

Rassled pt's four or five times, but always had help and we were coordinated. Had a couple of "postictals" after a psueodseizures try to get a cheap shot in on me. One DT'er spit on me a little. A guy tried to wipe blood on me as I was doing a glucometry on him, gloves blocked it (he got three more months for assault and battery). But the worst I ever got was a superficial bruise the size of a dime on my belly. This includes four years as an EMT and twenty working as a jail nurse.
 
DrParasite said:
an EDP slapped my *** once as we were walking out of a structure..... not entirely sure why......
Click to expand...
My partner does that, does that count as assault? :P
 
Never had anything serious occur as an EMT.

I guess this is kind of unrelated but I'll share anyway. When I was doing clinicals for a CNA class, a call light went off as I was walking down a hall. When I entered the room I saw another student on one knee while a patient/resident with dementia was sitting on the edge of his bed, grabbing her by the hair with both hands, trying to kick her in the face while screaming I'll kill you :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:!!! He was distracted by me entering enough for the student to pull herself free. I remember I looked at the student sitting on the floor with her hair all over the place and said...................everything going all right in here?....we both busted out laughing and then the patient started laughing too.
 
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Rassled pt's four or five times
Click to expand...

and three is five and five is four.
 
I've been bitten, gotten smacked, and had my hair pulled. Working IFT means lots of dementia patients and lots of psychs. I still remember one student who didn't listen to the patient when the patient said don't touch her, and the patient hauled off and smacked her. Eventually you learn.
 
Has anyone ever been in a situation where the patient did not make it and their family member/friend took their anger out on you physically? What do you do in this situation?
 
Interesting thread! In the department where I work there is a culture of "being assaulted is just part of the job" many naively don't even know they've been assaulted. Like anything in EMS it's SLOWLY changing for the better.

The incidents that come to mind: spit in the face intentionally on 3 separate occasions (requiring morgan lens irrigation once and loss 3 sets of contacts), I've been kicked in the chest once (I always wear a ballistic vest and he got the hard center mass plate not causing injury), I've been punched in the face, I can't count how many times people have tried, a knife was pulled on me once (PD failed to find it during their pat down) ....

In thinking about these and many more most if not all of them were EDP/ psych patients. Where's the line between assault and a side effect of their current condition? It's a gray area.
 
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