Attack on paramedics prompts Detroit to address violence against EMS providers

摘要

Shortly after midnight on October 20, 2015, Kelly Adams and her partner, Alfredo Rojas, responded to a call for an ankle injury. They drove their rig to a part of the city where many of Detroit's homeless population dwell and EMS calls are frequent. Rojas performed an initial assessment on the female patient, while the patient's companion hovered nearby and answered questions for her. Rojas attempted to separate the patient from her overbearing companion, enraging the man, who suddenly punched him, then pulled out a box cutter and began attacking him. With onlv his bare hands to fend off the attack, Rojas received multiple defensive wounds. Adams quickly grabbed the steel stepstool used to help patients climb into the ambulance and struck the attacker repeatedly. Frightened, the female patient moved away from the scene, as her companion, undeterred even after being-struck bv the stool, nirned and attacked Adams.