Friday, February 18, 2011
** AMR in Illinois sued, after woman dies following plunge from stretcher
** Bahrain medics attacked and injured during violent street clashes
UNITED STATES NEWS
** A Pembroke, Illinois man is suing American Medical Response after his sister died following a plunge from an EMS stretcher. WBZ-TV (Beth Germano/February 16) said Peter Zacarelli contends Barbara Grimes’ 2009 death while en route from Plymouth dialysis treatment was avoidable. According to the newspaper, Zacarelli claims Grimes, 68, suffered brain hemorrhaging and a broken neck as a result of being dropped on her head. She died five days after reaching hospital. Zacarelli’s attorney says medics failed to properly secure Grimes to the gurney. Medics, meanwhile, were noted as claiming a stretcher malfunction during the incident, though no known equipment inspection was carried out. AMR, meanwhile, has declined comment.
BAHRAIN NEWS
** Unrest in the Arab world continued Thursday, this time in the streets of Bahrain where ambulance medics were either prevented from rendering aid to the injured or attacked by government soldiers. That is the word from the Wall Street Journal (Joe Parkinson/February 17) which quoted Manama medic Jasim al Sankes, 26, as saying he was dragged from an ambulance by security forces;during a subsequent beating, Sankes suffered both head and arm injuries. A Salmanyah hospital complex spokesman confirmed Sankes’ account, saying seven other EMS workers had also been beaten. The melee at the site seems to have erupted after word spread that the police were preparing to storm the facility where the dead and wounded from an earlier public square clash had been taken. Three people are believed to have died so far, with some 230 wounded. The unrest comes mere days after the Tunisian president fell and riots in Egypt rocked the Middle East;demonstrations have also taken place in Yemen, Algeria, and Iran. Pundits say in troubled Bahrain, where a Sunni minority rules, trouble has long been boiling under the surface.
