Posted on 01/24/2006 2:54:43 PM PST by SmoothTalker
Joshua Philip Martin was in his fourth day on the job as a rescue-squad worker in Russell County when, in a playful mood, he decided to reach into the front seat of the ambulance and zap one of his co-workers with the defibrillator paddles. The rookie's mistake was fatal.
The target of Martin's prank was Courtney Hilton Rhoton, a 23-year-old mother of two small children who had worked her way through school to become an emergency medical technician. She went into cardiac arrest seconds after Martin placed the paddles on her chest and shoulder. Three days later, on June 4, she died.
"If they just knew Josh!" his mother, Diana White, exclaimed between sobs. "He just made a mistake. Everybody plays on the job, even cops. But with this one, it caught up. He's going to pay for it for the rest of his life."
"He was just playing around," Martin's aunt, Karen Martin, said. "Anybody who knows him knows this was not intentional."
Defibrillators are used to restore heartbeats, but they can also stop a heart. Martin, though an EMT, was not yet qualified to use the defibrillator and had been told it is not something to play with, Bush said.
Rhoton was in the front passenger seat of the ambulance, and driver Michael Coleman was heading south on U.S. 19 in Lebanon when Coleman heard Rhoton tell Martin not to touch her "with that," Bush said. Coleman looked back to see Martin putting the paddles away.
But shortly afterward, Bush said, Coleman heard the "sound of a shock" and heard Rhoton yell: "Oh my God, Mike, he shocked me!" Seconds later she stiffened and then went limp. Coleman frantically tried to hold her slumping body up while driving and calling the private ambulance company's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
When flirting goes very, very wrong.
Stupidity is not a legal defense.
How much intelligence does it take to know that this is something that you DON`T do.
And stupid. Very stupid.
If private, could ruin the business and cost the other employees their jobs.
If county job, 2 weeks suspended with pay.
Give this kid a gun and he'd playfully shoot you in the back.
Stupid is as stupid does. I feel bad for the young woman who lost her life and for her kids and family. This should never have happened.
Sometimes stupidity looks just like brutality.
"If they just knew Josh!" his mother, Diana White, exclaimed between sobs. "He just made a mistake. Everybody plays on the job, even cops."
Like when a cop will put his gun to the head of his partner and pulls the trigger. Some people just can't take a joke.
Criminal stupidity.
Cops playing around on the job is "hide the donuts from the rookie". If one cop killed another playing William Tell and hit a few inches below the apple, then I would have no problem with a jail term for the shooter.
Private ambulance. I can't believe anyone was stupid enough to do that. It's also cruel as h*ll. There's a reason dead people jerk when those things go off. Even if it's not fatal (it usually isn't), it hurts as badly as sticking your finger in a light socket.
What a moron. Who hired this guy as an EMT?
Anyone that even partial paid attention during the CPR/defibulator portion of the class would know that you don't play with those paddles. In every CPR class that I have ever taught or been in, it is stressed several times over that shocking someone that doesn't need it can put them into cardiac arrest.
I hate practical jokes and jokers.
It's real funny how the people who just love to pull the nastiest practical jokes are the same ones who take it the worst when they're the butt of the joke.
I'm sure that shortly after he gets his cell he'll be the butt of a few "jokes".
Looks like he'll soon be flirting with Big Turk, the one-eared con with the cowboy tattoo and the biceps in the next cell.
Too bad someone due to another person's stupidity, lack of discipline and stubborness.
oh dear Lord.
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