Christabel Duah
While paramedics were busy trying to save a life, an impatient and self-centered bystander left a shockingly rude note on the windshield of their ambulance ranting about their driveway being blocked — the patient later died.
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Paramedics in West Midlands, U.K., were responding to a call about a 42-year-old vomiting blood when they apparently parked their ambulance in front of a neighbor’s driveway. When they returned to their vehicle, they found the astonishingly insensitive note stuck to their windshield, reported the Daily Mail.
It read, “You may be saving lives, but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive.”
Crew alerted an extremely poorly patient to hospital… minimal on scene time, arrived at hospital to find this note… this patient was TIME-CRITCAL. 😡😡😡 @OFFICIALWMAS pic.twitter.com/uGGAC2TUpI
— Tasha Starkey (@TashaaStarkeey) November 10, 2017
According to the ambulance service, the paramedics were parked for less than 30 minutes and were rushing the “time critical” patient to the hospital with “massive internal bleeding,” the Daily Mail reported.
West Midlands paramedic Tasha Starkey was the one who found the snarky note pinned to her ambulance, and according to the West Midlands Ambulance service, the angry driver actually banged on the ambulance demanding it be moved.
Starkey shared her distaste over the actions of the rude driver, tweeting: “People are too focused in their own lives and forget about others. Infuriating.”
Her employer tweeted, “Just heard from one of our staff that two crews were treating a cardiac arrest patient today — the most serious case we can attend — and someone banged on the side of the ambulance asking them to move as they couldn’t get their car out! Sorry, #patientscomefirst.”
Sometimes we just don't know what to say. This was the note left on an ambulance today. At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting blood. They took him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition. #patientscomefirst 🏥🚑💨 pic.twitter.com/RwCCVmZgrA
— West Midlands Ambulance Service #HelpUsHelpYou (@OFFICIALWMAS) November 10, 2017
According to a fellow paramedic supervisor, Sam Grimson, the paramedics “always try to park appropriately, but sometimes it is not possible.”
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The unnamed patient died after being rushed to the hospital, and according to John Hagans, a nurse consultant at Livingstone House charity and rehab where the patient had lived, everyone at the charity was “disgusted.”
He said, “Words fail me. This person deserves to be shamed. If the person who wrote it had had any idea of what was going on inside, they would not have dared.”
Social media users and residents alike have banded together in shaming the unnamed note-writer, rightly calling out the fact that with so much to worry about, paramedics shouldn’t be attacked for inconveniencing a person — especially in such a petty manner.
“I feel so sorry for the man’s family, knowing that the note was placed on the ambulance that tried to save their son,” Hagan said to the Daily Mail. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
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