Monday, July 14, 2008

** Three New Jersey medics fired in faux KKK incident

** Georgia med-evac plane makes emergency landing after engines lose power

** Ambulance New Brunswick still awaiting report on best tires for ambulances

UNITED STATES NEWS

** Three Newark, New Jersey paramedics have been fired from their jobs after staging a Klu Klux Klan video with two student EMS workers. That is the word from The Star-Ledger (Ted Sherman/July 11) which said the incident was caught on a cell phone camera. According to the newspaper, the University Hospital practitioners had the students dress in white sheets, at the same time as brandishing wooden crosses. Believed to be part of a hazing ritual, the stunt took place July 6. The students, who were to work at the hospital over the summer for a clinical rotation, have also been released from toiling at the site.

** An AirMed air ambulance crew operating out of Augusta, Georgia had a narrow miss Friday, when their chopper rapidly lost power after it left a landing pad. WRDW (July 11) said the aircraft, which made it about 50 feet into the air before encountering problems, ended up landing on a chain link fence. No one was injured in the incident and the helicopter sustained only slight damage. The mishap comes only two weeks after three Arizona med-evac aircraft crashed. In the first, no one was injured;the second accident, however, saw two air ambulances collide in mid-air. Only a flight nurse survived.

CANADA NEWS

** Ambulance workers in New Brunswick are still waiting on information that will help decide what brand of tires EMS units should sport. The Daily Gleaner (Adam Bowie/July 12) quoted Ambulance New Brunswick CEO Rock Marois as saying the Edmonton based consultant Gilles Francoeur is over three weeks late in rendering a related report. Without the information, Marois said his organization might attempt to test tires this winter themselves. Calls for the scrutiny began this past winter after several ambulance accidents seemed to point to faulty rubber.