They issue everything you can imagine...except a can 'o whoop ass.

We had a Paramedic who was assaulted the other day. He's very lucky that his EMT is a big 'ol boy and was there to help. He suffered some pretty serious bruising and was visibly upset afterwards. He is very soft spoken and a heck of a nice guy and it made me absolutely furious to hear about it. It's not the first time. It most certainly won't be the last. So what do we do to prevent or at least reduce this risk in the future....well, the same thing we've always done, of course....absolutely nothing!

There are certain inherent risks associated with the jobs of Paramedics and EMT's. It is accepted and assumed that sooner or later, one will either have to defend themselves or their partner from an assault. They're issued thousands of dollars worth of equipment and receive one training course after another on how to protect themselves from every conceivable threat that they could face, from WMD's and hazardous materials to bloodborne pathogens or simple environmental hazards...every conceivable threat, that is except for physical assault. It is here that they are left on their own. It cannot be assumed that law enforcement will be on scene or even within close enough proximity to effect a difference in the outcome of an overwhelming physical assault from a patient who is doped up, psychotic, or suicidal. It is, however, just about the only threat that medics can almost guarantee themselves that they will encounter. For most, it will be more than once. For some it may even be frequent, and still for others, depending on the communities they work in, it could be weekly or even daily.

So why do service providers everywhere fail to equip them with the proper skills to protect themselves in an unarmed or even armed confrontation? Law Enforcement officers spend their whole career training and retraining on how to restrain or take down an assailant with less than lethal force. If they can be trusted to be professional enough to handle such training and employ it at the proper times, why can't those in the Emergency Medical field? Who better to knock you down or choke you out than a medic who is duty bound to render aid to you afterwards? Think you'll get that from a cop? I'm suprised there hasn't been an outcry from medics for defensive tactics training. A person who is trained to engage in unarmed combat is less likely to cause permanent or life threatening injury to their opponent than one who is not trained. That is an indisputable fact.

Gotta go now. I gotta get my head back in the sand so I fit in with the rest of my industry.