Sunday 21 June 2015

'Unpredictable, superhuman strength': Frontline paramedics facing violence from ice users say they fear for their safety

Extract from ABC News

Updated 48 minutes ago
Ambulance officers fear it could only be a matter of time before someone is badly hurt or even killed during a callout to help people high on ice.
Paramedics across Australia talk about the superhuman strength ice users can display, but in 25 years of treating all sorts of drug cases, veteran medic Scott Stanton says he has seen nothing like it.
"The patient was a female, of very slight build, probably around 40 to 50 kilograms," he recalled of one case.
"It took three of us to restrain her, with the assistance of the [police], before we could give her an injection to try and sedate her."
Having restrained the woman on scene, Mr Stanton and his team got her to hospital. But once there, the patient erupted into life once again.

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"It required six wardsmen, myself and two doctors to restrain the patient and get a drip into her so we could anaesthetise her and get her to sleep ... and even then we gave her enough of the drug that it would have put a horse to sleep. It was that much."
The violence comes out of nowhere — unpredictable, superhuman strength.
Paramedic Julie Hughes

Mr Stanton is a veteran of the heroin epidemic of the late 1990s. He remembers the emergence of ecstasy and speed.
He says he never feared heading out on shift to treat drug patients. Not until the rise of ice.
"This is one of the worst drugs I've seen as a paramedic. There is no safe level of this drug," he said.
"We've had quite a few colleagues who have been assaulted due to methamphetamine taking."

Police called as back-up for paramedics treating users

Ice users can be violent, paranoid and unpredictable. For paramedics across Australia, it can result in them being confronted by frightening and dangerous situations.
In Wagga Wagga, in southern New South Wales, paramedics will not go near people high on ice until police arrive.
The decision was taken after a number of ambulance officers were assaulted.
In Queensland, paramedics often call for police back-up when treating ice users.
"The violence comes out of nowhere — unpredictable, superhuman strength," critical care paramedic Julie Hughes said.
"You just don't know what they're going to do. Assaults on paramedics have increased, which is very sad.
"We're there to help people but we're finding ourselves in situations where our safety has been put at risk."
With ambulance officers facing rising violence, South Australia has launched a social media and advertising campaign to highlight assaults against paramedics.
The graphic video, shot using a mobile phone, shows a young man high on ice at a party pushing and screaming at a paramedic trying to treat his unconscious friend.
The campaign slogan tells viewers: "I can't fight for your mate's life if I'm fighting for mine."


'We don't want to be punching bags'

Tony Hucker, acting director of patient safety with the Queensland Ambulance Service, remembers a recent case in which the patient's life was in the balance but the man was threatening the paramedic trying to help him.
"He'd actually taken a load of alcohol and ice and he was really violent and agitated," Mr Hucker said.
The man's problems were serious. He was stuck in remote far-western Queensland, hundreds of kilometres from medical facilities and had been impaled through the stomach by a crowbar.
"There was only one paramedic who could attend this case because of the remoteness," Mr Hucker said.

"He actually had to sedate this young fellow, but with him being stabbed and bleeding it becomes quite complicated.
"Adding to his underlying injuries we had to get him out of the far west of Queensland to a facility to manage his injuries."
Even with three police on the scene, the injured man proved difficult to sedate.
Mr Hucker says he fears it could only be a matter of time before someone is badly hurt or even killed during a callout to an ice case.
"A couple of months ago we had a 40-year-old who was agitated and violent on a high rise balcony, and when you think about that, that is a very dangerous situation for the patient and the caregivers," he said.
"He was really quite out of control on a high rise balcony, so that poses enormous risks to us all. That could end up in a fatal event for one of us so we had to exercise great care."
Mr Hucker said paramedics around Australia had a simple message he wanted everyone to remember.
"We really need to remind the community that we don't want to be punching bags."

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