Family of Israeli patient insults Palestinian paramedic on duty
[Ma'an] A Paleostinian paramedic said he was verbally abused by relatives of an Israeli patient from Beit Fagan, a neighborhood of west Jerusalem.
Verbally abusing your relative's paramedic can be a really dumbass thing to do...
Fadi Badarna, who holds an Israeli ID card, works for the Red Star of David ambulance service and in the intensive care unit of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. He told Ma'an he was trying to resuscitate a patient who had lost consciousness when the man's relatives surrounded him and told him "You are a dirty Arab, and you are not authorized to make decisions."
"Well, okay. Here. You push on his chest and you can do the breathing thing. I'll go have a cigar."
Wanna see my picture with Arafat when he was one of my patients? He had pain in the ass relatives too...
"When I finished with first aid and decided to transfer the patient to hospital, I told the family that only one can go with him in the ambulance, and they repeated the same abuses. They also uttered bad words about my mother.
"Hey, Uri! Why don't we take the scenic route?"
"The one with the cobblestone streets?"
"Yeah. But it's an emergency so maybe you oughta drive it fast."
"Gotcha."
"I did not take interest in their insults, and I continued doing my duty as a paramedic. The administration of the Red Star of David supported me and strongly condemned the family's conduct."
Probably because he's a medic first and an Arab second, whilst the relatives were assholes first and foremost.
Badarna said it was not the first time he heard racist comments from Israelis. He said two months ago, security guards at Hadassah Hospital insisted on physically searching him as he transferred a patient, but he refused. They wanted to search me because I am Arab, despite the fact that I work for an Israeli service."
Posted by: Fred 2010-12-14 |