FDNY's EMS union wants New York City to better protect its first responders after an emergency medical technician was attacked and injured taking a patient with emotional issues to the hospital last week.
EMT Nicholas Cody, 20, was responding to a call concerning an emotionally disturbed person who was banging on cars as they drove by in the Mount Hope area of the Bronx, WCBS=TV reports. While on the way to the hospital, Cody was beaten and bitten by the patient, who was charged in the incident.
“He’s hurt pretty bad right now," Nicholas Cody's dad, Jeffrey, told WCBS. "Right now, he doesn’t have any mobility or feeling in his left arm."
Cody still was hospitalized as of Monday. He had just started as an EMT only five weeks earlier.
“He has been dressing up as a firefighter or EMT since he’s 3 years old for Halloween, so this has been a lifelong dream,” Jeffrey Cody added.
Friday's attack was even more alarming given the number of emergency 9-1-1 calls involving mental health issues in the past 10 years. There were nearly 180,000 mental health emergencies called in last year, compared to 97,132 in 2009.
“Mayor de Blasio, you need to do more to protect the men and women who protect and serve this city,” Oren Barzilay, president of the union representing FDNY EMTs, told WCBS. "The city is spiraling down to a chaos where there’s no respect for nobody—buckets of water thrown at police officers, assaults on EMTs and paramedics are on a daily basis, assaults on MTA workers is on a daily basis. … Our city has run down to a point of no return.”
In response to the attack, mental health workers—along with police officers—will now be part of the response involving 9-1-1 calls involving patients who are experiencing emotional or mental health issues.
