Staten Island Advance
Copyright 2008 Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Luis Feliciano’s job as an emergency medical technician (EMT) is to help people in need of immediate medical care. He wraps broken bones, gives oxygen, and gets patients to the hospital as fast as he can.
But for all his good work, the Staten Island resident has been verbally abused, punched in the face and forced to stare down a machete-toting man. On Thursday night, a man he was trying to aid in a Stapleton apartment building allegedly flung him to ground, causing Feliciano, 48, to be hospitalized with chest and side pains.
“It’s not uncommon we get assaulted verbally, or even physically,” Feliciano, who works out of Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, (RUMC) said yesterday in an interview at his hospital bed. “You’re out there helping people and this is what happens.”
Feliciano said he had no apparent broken bones, although still in considerable pain. He was listed in stable condition, a hospital spokeswoman said,
The plucky veteran of more than 19 years from South Beach vowed to quickly return to work.
“It’s stressful, but you keep going,” said Feliciano, an amiable dark-haired man, who wears glasses. “If people know we’re out there, even if we’re getting hurt, and go back for more, it shows our dedication.”
The alleged assailant Pedro Hernandez, 42, of the 200 block of Osgood Avenue, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and attempted assault, along with harassment.
Jennifer Sammartino, an RUMC spokeswoman said there have been four assaults against the hospital’s EMTs in the past year. A source believed that six EMTs, all told, have been attacked in the borough over the past 12 months.
The Fire Department, which dispatches EMTs, could not immediately say yesterday how many have been attacked in the past year while on duty. However, a source said, “It does happen.”