ARCADE, Ga. — A man, infected with hepatitis C, was charged with reckless conduct for spitting a mouthful of blood and saliva onto the face of an EMT.
Online Athens reported police were called to a home after a man called to report his neighbor might be having seizures. When officers arrived, they found Christopher Keith Johnston, 23, on the floor, refusing to answer questions, but admitting to having taken methamphetamine.
After a Jackson County ambulance arrived, EMS providers loaded Johnston into their ambulance. Johnston became erratic. He started kicking and freed his legs from the restraints.
As an EMT struggled to restrain Johnston again, the man spat a mouthful of blood and saliva onto the EMT’s face and on the seats inside the ambulance.
The blood got into the EMT’s eye and he immediately left the ambulance to flush it with a solution.
After Johnston was transported to a hospital, the EMT received exposure treatment, as Johnston tested positive for hepatitis C.
The EMT’s preliminary blood test was negative for hepatitis C, but he will have to be tested again in two weeks.