LONDON – London Ambulance Service Paramedic Lorna McIlwaine, as well as her patient and a police officer, was urinated on by a 22-year-old man at about 1 a.m. on January 31. The assailant was recently fined and sentenced to community service for the incident.
“I was walking him to my response car with a police officer when, without any warning, I felt a splash,” said McIlwaine.
The LAS paramedic had responded to a man that had been attacked at his store. The patient had a black eye and fractured nose.
“I didn’t know what it was at first but it became very clear it was a bodily fluid,” said McIlwaine”
She looked up to see a man standing on a fourth-floor balcony, exposing himself and laughing. Police arrested and charged Andrew Whitehead.
“I’ve been physically assaulted once before in my career and threatened as well, but what made this different was it felt so personal,” said McIlwaine. “And while all I was doing was helping a patient who was already shaken after being attacked.”
The incident caused additional frustration for McIlwaine as she needed to return to her station for a uniform change and to file an incident report, which prevented her from responding to the needs of other patients.
On February 20, Whitehead was fined and sentenced to 300 hours of community service.“To treat our ambulance crews in such a demeaning and humiliating way is completely unacceptable. Our paramedics are only trying to care for patients in their time of need,” said Deputy Director of Operations Katy Millard.
“Medics are already under a great deal of pressure. It is completely unacceptable that they should also face the risk of this treatment, or worse, when they go to assist members of the public.”