A Raytown Ambulance responded to a 911 call from Shear Precision in 3 minutes. A customer was having a stroke. She was taken to a local hospital and is recovering. The doctors at the hospital that if it had taken longer to get her to them, she would have died. This part does not seem to be disputed by anyone.
What is in dispute is the whether the lady having a stroke was treated in a professional manner by the responding EMS providers. She claims the paramedics insisted she walk to the ambulance, but later complains about being thrown onto the bed (cot) and jerked around while being carried.
When Raytown Online asked several employees from Shear Precision and neighboring businesses, they responded that the paramedics unloaded a cot and she was transported to the ambulance on it. A neighboring business owner stated to Raytown Online that he watched the whole event and that the paramedics were fast and professional and took 6 minutes to evaluate the situation, load the patient and leave.
The lady’s story is inconsistent, but she was recalling events that happened while having a stroke, so there is a very good chance that she is recounting what she thinks happened.
Being startled and uttering the word sh** is not the same as cussing at someone or cussing them out. It may not be perfect behavior, but it is understandable behavior and does not warrant all this indignation.
What seems strange is FOX4’s spin on this story. They gave very limited coverage to the EMS point of view. Mr. Cushman stated that he was interviewed for 45 minutes by FOX4, yet only one sentence appears from him in the article and nothing from the paramedics, firefighters, or the neighboring business owner, whose account to Raytown Online seems to confirm Mr. Cushman’s account. FOX4 did not point out the inconsistencies in the woman’s story (from the video that they have since removed from their site), and they added the words “at her” to her videotaped assertion that the paramedic uttered a curse word. If they wanted to be accurate they would have stopped at cursed, or said he cursed in her presence, but by adding those two little words “at her” they spin it so that it sounds like the paramedic cussed the patient out.
Is this fair and balanced or is this sloppy sensationalism? You be the judge.
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