A man has died after paramedics sent to help him were attacked by dozens of angry men as they attempted to treat the unconscious male after a suspected drug overdose.
Paramedics were called to a unit block on Iris Avenue, Riverwood, in Sydney’s west, at about 0800 hours on Sunday for a 25-year-old male who was reportedly unconscious after a suspected drug overdose.
For some ridiculous reason, family members of the dying man became agitated with the paramedics and tried to intervene as the medics attempted to try and save the males life, according to the Australian Paramedics Association (APA).
Around 80 angry men quickly gathered at the unit and allegedly threatened the medics and assaulted a female paramedic during the mini-riot, injuring her shoulder
‘Paramedics were forced to fend off the angry males who eventually forced them to stop treating the patient who was in cardiac arrest and subsequently died,’ APA secretary Steve Pearce said.
The paramedics barricaded themselves inside a nearby property as the deranged and delinquent mob demanded a defibrillator and drugs from the medics, believing that they could treat the young man themselves, Mr Pearce added.
The medics sent out an urgent plea for police assistance and shortly after around 20 officers arrived at the scene in order to rescue the medics from the crowd.
By the time the police arrived the patient had already died.
‘On this occasion the stupidity of these people have taken the life of their family member,’ Mr Pearce said.
‘We don’t want any more people to face the horrifying situation of their loved ones dying because paramedics are unable to treat patients after threats of violence.’
No arrests were made at the scene by police, but enquiries are on-going.
Police said later that the death is not being treated as suspicious, and a report is being prepared for the coroner.
Medics in certain parts of Australia have recently taken part in a high-profile campaign to call for people to stop assaulting paramedics as they try to do their job.
Thousands of people left messages of support for the medics and voiced their disgust about the attack.
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It is hard to understand that people should want to harm paramedics. If these people or their family and friends were sick they would ask the paramedics for help
😔 sad
Way back when air ambulances were a new thing and they were greatly outnumbered by police helicopters, I was stuck in traffic on the way out of an air show carpark when a man suffered a heart attack and one of the first in the UK tried to get in to pick him up. Unfortunately some of the idiots stuck in the traffic thought it was a police chopper spying on them and started throwing stones at it. It never occurred to them that it was actually there to help someone, and if they had managed to damage it as they wanted to, then it would end up on their damn fool heads.