http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20121026-379891.html
On all these occasions, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) paramedic was simply doing her job - attending to patients.
"I get calmer and calmer each time," said Staff Sergeant (SSG) Lim Tin Lay, who has experienced five serious abuse cases in her eight years of service.
An SCDF spokesman said on Thursday that the force is concerned about the physical and/or verbal abuse their frontline officers encounter while attending to distress calls.
Their officers are often attacked by the very victims they are out to render help to, or by the victims' family members, the spokesman said.
From 2009 to last month, a total of 47 physical and verbal abuse cases against SCDF frontline officers - emergency ambulance staff included - have been reported to the police.
While 20 offenders were let off with stern warnings, 15 have been jailed, while another two were both jailed and fined.
SSG Lim recalled an incident earlier this month when she was responding to a patient in Yio Chu Kang. He had called an ambulance for his headache.
At first, the man demanded an injection, but she said she did not have the medicine on her.
As the ambulance moved off, she told him she would take him to the nearest hospital - Khoo Teck Puat Hospital - where the headache could be resolved.
But he argued that he had an appointment with Tan Tock Seng Hospital the next day and wanted to be taken there instead.
She recounted: "He unbuckled himself from the stretcher and wanted to jump out of the ambulance. He said, 'I don't want to go'."
SSG Lim and another trainee tried to hold him down but he struggled violently.
She said: "He was lying back at a 45-degree angle. Then, he pulled his leg back and kicked (my shoulder). He was wearing slippers and it hurt."
A third staff member, a medic, grabbed the man to prevent him from jumping out of the ambulance, but SSG Lim saw that there was no point fighting with the man.
She said: "We stopped the ambulance and let him go."
The Chief Medical Officer of SCDF, Lieutenant-Colonel (Dr) Ng Yih Yng, said paramedics are told to stay calm and to call the police instead of approaching a person who is carrying a weapon.
New paramedics ride with a senior officer for about 1 1/2 years and they learn how to deal with difficult members of the public on the job - methods hard to teach in a classroom.
Paramedics also meet every three months to share and learn from their experiences.
Sgt Mohamed Fadly Hairoddin related how a man in his early 30s started hurling vulgarities at him shortly after he visited his flat in November last year.
The man had a large golden retriever, which the third-year paramedic requested he keep restrained, as it would hinder treatment of the man's wife.
She was in her late 20s and was drowsy on the living room floor with head injuries.
Sgt Mohd Fadly said he knelt down next to the woman and stabilised her head as the man kept scolding him.
"Then I heard (the sound of gathering spit) and felt a blob of saliva hitting my cheek."
He wiped it away with one hand and continued bandaging her head. Then, he felt another gob of saliva hit the back of his neck.
He said: "I thought I had to stay calm. But he made our life difficult... it was my first (abuse case) and I was a bit sad."
Call-takers attending the 995 emergency lines also get abused verbally.
Lt-Col (Dr) Ng said: "People can get annoyed by the questions and wonder, why we are wasting their time?" He added that when an abusive person is on the line, it is harder for a call-taker to read the situation.
Anyone who verbally abuses a public servant on duty can be jailed up to two years or fined, or both. Those who physically abuse a public servant on duty can be jailed up to seven years, fined, caned, or a combination of both.
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