Tuesday, November 17, 2009
** Work absences rise at BC Ambulance following forced strike stoppage
** California air ambulance crash victims identified
** California medic sentenced to jail for raping female patient
CANADA NEWS
** BC Ambulance brass are apparently preparing to discipline several medics who have unnecessarily booked off sick since a forced strike settlement last week. The Globe and Mail (Jane Armstrong/November 16) said 50 practitioners did not show for work on Friday, while on Sunday the number was 32. Several ambulances were also taken off the road due to staff absences. BC Ambulance spokesman Leo Doney said illegal job action kept medics from reporting for duty, rather than actual sickness. Doney said while he appreciates practitioners are angry at the strike stoppage, sanctions could soon be in the offing for offenders. Union spokesman BJ Chute, however, disagreed with Doney, saying the strike has worn medics out. Chute also said the service constantly operates by relying on overtime instead of filling 100 vacancies.
UNITED STATES NEWS
** Officials have now released the names of the three crew members killed in an air ambulance crash near the Nevada-California border Saturday. The Record Searchlight (November 15) said the dead have been identified as Susanville Chief Flight Paramedic Christopher Ritz, 37, Susanville Chief Flight Nurse Clinton Reger, 40, and pilot James Bradshaw, 39, of Hawaii. All three perished around 2 a.m. when their Aerospatiale AS350 chopper went down north of Reno. The plane had just finished dropping a patient in Reno and was on a return trip to Susanville when it crashed. According to the newspaper, Bradshaw did have time to issue a mayday call just before the fatal plunge. Although much of the helicopter was destroyed in the fire that followed, the wreckage has already been collected and has been sent away for examination. Funeral services for all three crew members are pending.
** A Newport Beach, California EMT is headed to jail for three years, after being convicted of raping a female patient in his care. The Los Angeles Times (November 13) said Jesse Karim Pena, 32, was convicted Friday of the act which took place at the Mission Viejo Hospital. According to the newspaper, Pena entered the intoxicated woman’s room around midnight on February 21 of this year and attacked her;he had transported her to the facility earlier. Later analysis of the patient’s nightgown found Pena’s DNA on the fabric. Pena was arrested June 25.
