By EMS1 Staff
NISSWA, Minn. — A paramedic who almost died in a medical helicopter crash last year has been fired from his position as a flight paramedic.
Echo Press reported that Miles Weske was terminated from North Memorial Air Care while still recovering from severe injuries sustained in the Sept. 2016 crash. Weske suffered fractures to two vertebrae, a liver laceration, multiple broken ribs, a broken sternum, broken femur, broken ankle, collapsed lungs and blood in his lungs.
He returned home after two months in the hospital. In January, he was given a full-time position in the North Memorial billing department which allowed him to work from home with a flexible schedule in order to attend doctor appointments.
Weske, according to his wife, is still employed by North Memorial in the billing department. If Weske were to leave his position in the billing department, then he would lose his medical benefits.
North Memorial did not comment on the matter, according to the report.
“He was eventually fired from his paramedic job with Air Care, and sent to work in the billing department of North Memorial instead. The dream of getting back in the air was officially over with a phone call,” she wrote on her blog.
Weske’s wife says they are going to take legal action to prevent something similar happening to someone else.
“They used Miles as such a media pony, like, ‘Look at what we’ve done, we crashed this helicopter but we fixed you,’” his wife said. “Then everything (media) goes away and it’s like, ‘OK, we don’t care about you anymore.’”
“I think the whole point in this whole thing was to try to get him to quit because then he is going to forfeit all benefits. We are reminded each day that our lives have changed forever … Each day is filled with appointments, travel, phone calls, paperwork and constant reminders of the permanent deficits this incident has caused ... And to have lost the support of the superiors of an organization that boasts their dedication to ‘taking care of family’ is disturbing.”