Spat on, punched, rammed with a car: The shocking list of paramedic assaults

A spate of attacks on paramedics that ambulance bosses say are increasing in severity has led to a plea for greater respect towards first responders.

Ambulance Victoria regional operations director Vanessa Gorman said on Tuesday that the situation was the worst she had seen in 30 years.

One crew was recently rammed by a car. Another was confronted by a person trying to hit them with a cricket bat. Others have been repeatedly punched in the face.

Ambulance Victoria regional director Andrew Burns said the festive season typically led to poorer behaviour as alcohol and drug consumption increased, alongside risk-taking, but violence towards paramedics had particularly spiked since November.

A high number of incidents over the weekend – including physical, verbal and sexual assault – led to Ambulance Victoria calling a press conference on Tuesday.

Paramedic Luke Harrington told reporters he had now been spat on twice while working.

The second instance was just a few days before Christmas, when a stranger approached his ambulance late at night in a Rowville carpark, demanding equipment that Harrington told him they didn’t have.

“That’s when he escalated, and he got right up to my face and spat on my neck,” Harrington recalls.

The paramedic managed to climb back into his vehicle, but the aggressive man smashed on his window, swearing as he tried to jump on the ambulance before police arrived.

“I think we were just lucky in that situation to get away,” Harrington says.

Gorman said the frequency of attacks had increased since November, but she was particularly concerned that the severity of assaults had worsened too.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it in 30 years of emergency work,” she says.

“I’ve physically had my wrist broken. I’ve been spat on, kicked, punched multiple times throughout my career, but I’ve never seen it as bad as it is now, in regards to the severity of assaults taking place.”

On December 27, a patient stroked a female paramedic’s inner thigh and continued the unwanted touching, even after more crew arrived.

Gorman said that sexual assault was particularly shocking.

“In a three-day window, we had 10 very serious offences perpetrated against our paramedics, which has caused us today to step out as an organisation and as regional leaders to say: Enough is enough.”

She described violence inflicted upon emergency workers as a global epidemic.

Burns said patients were often the perpetrators of paramedic assaults, but bystanders and relatives were increasingly aggressive.

He was unable to cite specific assault numbers for December compared to previous years but said “ridiculous levels” of abuse over the Christmas period indicated the problem was worsening.

“I think rather than talking to the specific numbers, it’s the trend and the severity that is grossly concerning,” he said.

“We’ve had crews whipped by stethoscope. We’ve had crews have to abandon the ambulance whilst a patient destroyed the back of the ambulance.”

Harrington, meanwhile, has been a paramedic for seven years and describes violence towards him as part of the reality of his profession. Spitting was not uncommon.

“I wish that I could say that this was the first time it’s happened to me, but almost an identical situation happened about 18 months ago,” he said.

“It was the same thing, a stranger came and pulled the window down, essentially, and spat on me again.”

He later added: “I got into this job to help people on their worst day … which is why it’s even more disappointing that this stuff happens.”

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