Jun. 30—June 1 started out as a regular day for Jen McFalls Smith, who had no idea that it would end with having her head smashed into an ambulance floor and being throttled by a man high on PCP.
"I've been bitten. I've been punched. I've been kicked," the Crozer Health emergency medical technician said. "When I was pregnant with my son, a man rammed his motorized wheelchair into the stretcher, trying to knock me over and it went into my stomach."
Even with all of that, McFalls Smith, 31, said of the early June incident, "This was the worst one."
According to the Journal of Emergency Medical Services, EMTs and paramedics have a rate of workplace violence that is six times higher than the rate for all workers in the United States.
In a 2020 study they conducted, they found that EMTs and paramedics have a rate of violent injury of 37.8 per 10,000 workers. In the same study, firefighters faced a rate of 5 incidents per 10,000 workers. Only registered nurses came second with a rate of 23 violent injury incidents per 10,000 workers.
Those statistics became personal for McFalls Smith and her partner, Ronald "Tim" Trout after responding to a call for an unresponsive person in the Drexeline Shopping Center parking lot.
She and Trout were working out of the Secane unit in Upper Darby that Saturday when the call came.
Trout, the ambulance driver, said when they arrived to the scene at the Drexeline Shopping Center, the man was shirtless next to his vehicle.
"He was awoken by the paramedic who arrived before us and admitted to ingesting PCP on his break," Trout said. "He was cool, calm and collected, (answering), 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir.' "
That changed within 2 miles on their way to Lankenau Hospital.
"I was getting another blood pressure," McFalls Smith said. "While I was taking it, I noticed that he just stopped talking and then his eyes glazed over — a deer-in-the-headlights look. I took the blood pressure cuff off and said, 'Ok, it's all done. We're going to have a nice easy ride to the hospital' and that's when it changed.
"He grabbed my knee and then grabbed my wrist and then it just went wild after that," McFalls Smith said. "He grabbed my hair and pulled down. The back of my head got slammed on the floor of the ambulance and I was stuck between the stretcher and the bench seat."
She said the man then began to strangle her with both of his hands.
"I was yelling for (Trout), I was screaming as this was happening," McFalls Smith said. "He put it in park. He came around the side door and intervened. Thank God he was there. He saved my life."
Trout gave his perspective of the incident.
"We were at the stop light at State (Road) and Lansdowne (Avenue) and my partner, Jen, was in the back and I heard her call the patient's name numerous times," he said, adding that in their line of work, if the first responder is doing that, that means the patient is either unconscious or ignoring their directions.
"After the third time, I heard a blood curling scream I only heard in movies," Trout said. "When I heard that initial scream, my stomach dropped."
"I ran into the back and jumped on top of him so she could get free," Trout said. "I jumped out the back of the truck ... We fell out of the ambulance. I hopped on the radio and called for assistance."
McFalls Smith continued about the rescue.
"He had to pull me out by my shirt," she said. "We shut the doors of the ambulance and we made sure he couldn't get out."
After police were summoned, they themselves sought medical treatment.
"PCP gives you extreme strength," McFalls Smith said. "We both went and got treated. I had a concussion. I had bruises on both of arms. I had neck pain and upper back and right shoulder pain. When I got home that night, there were more bruises on my legs."
"I haven't been on an ambulance since then," she said.
The fallout
Born and raised in Delaware County, McFalls Smith started her career as a volunteer firefighter at 15-years-old with the Collingdale Fire Company. When she turned 16, she started riding on the ambulances. She joined the Crozer Health unit in 2019.
She shared what it's been like for her since the attack.
"I've had nightmares, panic attacks," McFalls Smith said. "I go to physical therapy now. I'm also seeing a psychiatrist."
She also suffers the effects of PTSD. She said she can't sleep and she's afraid to be alone.
"Physically, for a while afterwards, I couldn't pick up my kids because it was painful," the married mother of two said. "I haven't been wanting to go and take them to a park. I've had trouble. I didn't want to leave my house unless I was forced to."
She was grateful for the show of support from her co-workers, who attended the preliminary hearing with her.
"My co-workers have been great and so has the chief of the department, my boss that I interact with every day," McFalls Smith said. "I haven't heard anything from risk management or corporate or hospital administration. They haven't even offered any legal help through this. They haven't offered anything."
She's doing the best she can to move on with life.
"I go to school at night three times a week for paramedic school and trying to fit in my kids' doctor's visits," McFalls Smith said. Her 2 1/2 year old is severely autistic with severe hypotonia and a neurogenetic disorder and needs home therapy three times a week.
"My mom is a huge help with child care," McFalls Smith said. "Right before the incident, she got diagnosed with breast cancer. Three days after her surgery, the incident happened and she was recovering at my house."
In addition, a few days before the attack she and her family were at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania to take her 32-year-old cousin off life support, which the cousin had been one because of cardiomyopathy.
"It has not been easy," McFalls Smith said.
And, then, there's the practical matters, too.
"The one thing that bugged me the most: my glasses got destroyed during the incident," she said. "That was my last pair. The lenses I was able to salvage. The frames got destroyed."
Trout said he missed two days because of the incident and has been full duty since then.
'She's not alone'
However, the five-year Crozer Health employee, he said, "That's the first time anything like that happened to myself. Things have happened to other providers. It is overwhelming but we just learn to adapt and overcome and work with what we have."
He said it has caused him to have second thoughts about his line of work.
One thing is important to him and his fellow paramedic/EMT co-workers, "We're always checking up on ( McFalls Smith) to let her know she's not alone and we're there for her," he said.
Trout also spoke to their working conditions.
"Our office, so to speak, is an ambulance," he said. "We're in ambulances with well over 300,000 miles with no working air conditioning. In order to get things fixed, our vendors want payment upfront."
In addition, he said new hires don't even have uniforms and constantly go without bulletproof vests, something the Crozer Health paramedic teams need.
"We always have to keep our safety into mind because we go into very dangerous situations," Kate Denney, president of the 132-member Crozer Chester Paramedics Association, said. "We have to wear bulletproof vests because we deal with a lot of shootings in the city."
Denney, who attended the preliminary hearing with McFalls Smith and Trout, said the union is behind them.
"We support them 100%," she said. "Physically, emotionally it is very tolling on them."
Crozer Health responds
Denney reiterated Trout's concerns about members not having bulletproof vests and ambulances with hundreds of thousands of miles that constantly need to be maintained.
"Sometimes, supplies aren't even paid for," she said. "Because they are in the midst of selling the hospital, Prospect (Medical Holdings, Crozer Health's parent company) is not paying their bills like they should. The morale in general is very, very poor among the people in Prospect. We don't feel like we're being taken seriously. If we don't have the tools in the toolbox to serve the community, then the community suffers."
"We are spread very, very thin," Denney said. "We are working on bare bones. We love what we do, we just need support."
Crozer Health Chief Executive Officer Anthony Esposito issued a statement regarding this incident and claims. It reads:
"We condemn the assault on two of our valued EMS employees in the strongest possible terms. It is especially concerning that they were faced with a situation like this while selflessly serving our community. Our most important priority right now is making sure that these employees are being taken care of and provided with the resources they need to help them recover.
"EMS Chief Bruce Egan has been involved from the outset and is committed to ensuring that all of our staff are on full alert for potential hazards while continuing to perform the critical, often lifesaving work they do every day on behalf of our community.
" Crozer Health's focus is on delivering quality, compassionate patient care as well as safe working conditions for our employees. Our leadership team is working collaboratively with PASNAP leadership and frontline EMTs and paramedics to resolve any issues with staffing, safety gear, and vehicles. We will continue to partner with them on solutions to better serve our patients and our employees."
'You called us'
As a result of the incident, Robert L. Hines, 45, of Upper Darby, has been charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, resisting arrest and related charges.
At a June 20 preliminary hearing packed with the co-workers of McFalls Smith and Trout, Hines was held for court in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. Bail was set at $45,000.
No attorney was listed for Hines and a public defender had not been requested.
In the meantime, these first responders hope the community can better understand their work and take the situation seriously.
"Bear with us," Trout said. "Our uniforms look like police officers'. We're not the enemy. You called us. We didn't ask to be here."
McFalls Smith said she hopes victims' experiences are weighed as much as those dealing with substance abuse disorders.
"Violence against any branch of emergency services can't be tolerated any more," she said. "It shouldn't be excused just because someone decided to do PCP. This can't be tolerated anymore."
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