** Florida paramedic only given probation for molesting drugged, disabled patient
** Tennessee paramedic, who fell asleep at wheel in crash that killed patient, could be charged
UNITED STATES NEWS
** A Florida paramedic from Panama City has been given only five years probation after molesting a disabled patient in his care. That is the word from The News Herald (Zack McDonald/June 17) which said former Lifeguard Ambulance medic John Thomas Harrington, 47, was handed the sentence Thursday. He pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious molestation of a disabled person. According to the newspaper, Harrington fondled the drugged woman as she was being transported to Gainesville. Along with the above mentioned sentence, Harrington will now be designated as a registered sex offender. The unidentified victim in the case is now suing Lifeguard Ambulance based out of Birmingham, Alabama.
** A Tennessee paramedic from Chatanooga could be charged by police after a Friday ambulance accident caused by her falling asleep at the wheel killed her EMS patient. The Times Free Press (June 16) said Rheanne Chrystin Keys, 21, told police she nodded off around 4 a.m. while on Martha Berry Highway. The ambulance left the road, hit a tree, and then jumped over an embankment. The prehospital rig was transporting the patient from a nursing home to a Rome, Georgia hospital at the time. LaFayette, Georgia resident Tony Patterson, 55, died in the crash. Fellow medic Robert Orlo Burnham, 29, who was in the back with Patterson, was injured along with Keys. Both are in stable condition in hospital.
