A paramedic says she decided to quit her job after being assaulted while trying to help a patient.
Julie Owen, a paramedic with the Welsh Ambulance Service, says she was verbally abused and spat at by a patient’s daughter.
After a 20-year career, Ms Owen says she is no longer interested in the job she once loved.
“I’ve suffered violence and aggression of many kinds over my 20-year career, and I guess this is the last one I’m prepared to deal with,” she said.
“They build up and up, and one day just become too much. I feared for my life that night, and the impact on me was something I didn’t expect.
“Is going home in one piece too much to ask?”
Ms Owen was responding to a medical emergency in Shotton, Flintshire, with a colleague, when the patient’s daughter became aggressive.
‘She threw glass at us, spat at us’
“She was verbally abusive throughout, and when we went to get pain relief for her mum, she became physically aggressive too,” Ms Owen added.
“She threw glass at us, spat at us and came right up to our faces trying to punch us.”
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The patient’s daughter was arrested after the police were called.
“I’ve decided to hang up my boots and secure another role in the service which means I’ll have less patient-facing contact,” she said.
“It’s a very sad way for me to end my career as a road paramedic.”
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Kirsty Walker, 33, was jailed for 20 weeks on 29 February at Mold Magistrates’ Court.
She had previously admitted three offences of assaulting an emergency worker and one of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.
