You’d expect the staffers who work on an ambulance to show a bit more empathy and consideration for the patients they help transport, but this wasn’t the case here.
Two crew members on a G4S ambulance in Kent, U.K., accidentally left a voice message to a patient they were scheduled to take to the hospital for a check-up, in which they debated on whether they should beat him to a pulp with the fire extinguisher and then claim self-defense.
An edited version of the audio is also available at the bottom of the page. The Guardian reports that the 43-year-old patient has a history of mental issues but has never been violent towards G4S staff. Until this incident, he’d never been suicidal either, but he ended up self-harming after he heard what the 2 staffers were saying about him.
“He’s homeless, he’s aggressive, he’s suicidal, so he ain’t gonna be the best, is he?” the driver of the ambulance tells his mate, not realizing that he forgot to hang up his phone and that everything he said was being recorded as a voice message to the patient. “You don’t need to take him if you don’t feel safe with him. That’s why we’ve got the fire extinguisher. Take it off the hook now and you’ve got something to hit him with. You’d rather be prosecuted, wouldn’t you, for beating a patient to a pulp than that patient beating you to a pulp, wouldn’t you, as a choice of the two?”
They also talk about how beating the man would translate into a 6-month suspension, but how that would be preferable to having their legs broken. When the driver realizes he never hung up his phone, he simply remarks that he’d left a very long voice message and hangs up.
“When I got in the ambulance they were all nicey-nice and said ‘how are you mate?’ and I said ‘I was good till I heard your voice message’,” the patient tells the same media outlet. “Then I played them the voicemail. They tried to apologize and I said it’s a bit late for that.”
Police couldn’t press charges over the incident, as the two never threatened the patient directly. G4S suspended them but refused to say whether it’s a paid suspension or not. However, the security firm stressed that the incident showcased the flaws in some of their staffers and not in the firm itself.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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