By MELISSA MEEHAN
A DANGEROUS kick to the head resulted in a local paramedic needing CT scans, after she was brutally attacked by an ice user as she transported him to hospital.
The man was coming down from ice, and as paramedics arrived the man was in a relaxed state.
They sat him down, and as they spoke to the triage nurse he became aggravated before planting the kick, which could have been fatal.
Luckily the paramedic wasn’t fatally injured, but it’s a frightening example of the day to day dangers faced by emergency crews called to events where ice is involved.
Acting Team Manager at Ambulance Victoria branches in Emerald and Belgrave, Fida Masri said the above incident, while rare, showed the dangers of the job.
“That paramedic was lucky she wasn’t seriously injured in the end,” she said.
“But it depicts the violent and aggressive nature of people on ice.”
Ms Masri said it was important that people understood that ice was no longer a party drug, and said it was infiltrating the suburbs and country towns at an alarming rate.
“Paramedics are reporting an increase and spike in ambulance call-outs to people affected by crystal methamphetamine,” she said.
“What is hard for us is that we think we’re being called out to a heroin overdose, unaware they’ve also taken ice, we’re already on alert but we treat them and then they wake in a psychotic rage.
“It can be a dangerous turn of events, heroin users can be agressive, but ice takes it to a whole new level.”
She said with ice, users could often go from zero to 1000 in a matter of minutes, so they took heroin to slow down the effects and come down.
“It’s not documented, but anecdotally we’re seeing an increase of polypharmacy drugs,” she said.
“It just means that often, we’re not sure what we are dealing with.”
Ms Masri said that often users could present as being OK and quite calm, but then have moments of rage.
“I’ve been on the scene with five paramedics, six to seven police having to help with one patient,” she said.
“They seem to get the strength of 10 men, in a frenzied psychotic episode.
“The OC foam doesn’t even affect them.”
The medical risks are high, too, with users often at threat of heart attacks or strokes because of increased heart rate and blood pressure.
It’s all a world many in the community wouldn’t see or understand.
But for those affected by addiction to the violent drug, it’s hell.
“I often think about a young kid that overdosed at home one night,” she said.
“His mother was beside herself, crying and screaming – she worked herself up so much we needed to take her to hospital for chest pains.
“And I thought to myself, why would anyone do this to their families?
“But I guess, when they are hooked they don’t care about anything else other than their next hit.”
