A Tasman paramedic is calling for more appropriate sentences for people who assault ambulance staff after she was violently assaulted on her first day back from maternity leave.
Each year, there are 3000 instances of verbal and physical abuse against paramedics, including 80 assaults reported on first responders around the country every month.
Currently, the penalties for attacking a first responder are the same as any other assault.
St John has since thrown its support behind a New Zealand First bill currently moving through Parliament calling for an automatic six-month prison term for anyone convicted of assaulting an ambulance officer.
Yesterday MPs heard stories of ambulance officers being punched and abused while helping others.
One such victim was St John paramedic Aleisha Hart, who was violently assaulted on her first day back in the truck after maternity leave in 2018.
“It was a really low point in my career,” Ms Hart said.
The intensive care paramedic recalled how she had been dispatched from her local ambulance station in Richmond, where she located a woman who “chose not to communicate or talk with us” but instead began spitting in her direction.
The woman stopped spitting when asked, after which Ms Hart said she moved slightly forward to obtain her vital sign measurements.
“She came directly towards me and started to punch me quite violently,” she said.
“At that point, I was pushed backwards about a metre, where I fell heavily.
“This was deliberate, and it was unprovoked and unexpected.”
Her crewmate was also attacked during the incident.
Ms Hart said she continues to think back on the assault when responding to call-outs, saying it is “definitely at the forefront of my mind at times”.
“I think back a lot about the sentencing itself, and the punishment that was given to the person that assaulted me, which I felt was inadequate and insufficient.”
She said her assailant was only given “some sort of fine” for the assault.
“We were invited to part of a restorative justice process, which I declined to do as I didn’t want to endure any more stress in an already difficult situation.”
Ms Hart said she would like to remind people that paramedics must be well in order to do their jobs.
“It is always a privilege to enter people’s homes and to alleviate pain and suffering and assist people, and if we’re not OK, we can’t do that. We can’t do the next shift and go to the next job, so we need to be OK to do that.
“We have feelings and we’re often mothers and daughters and sisters, and it should not be part of our job to have physical aggression.”
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