[v1r]

"An EMS worker was stabbed by an emotionally disturbed patient she was transporting to the hospital Wednesday night, according to police and law enforcement sources.

The Mount Sinai West first responder was stabbed in the arm and leg in an ambulance around 9 p.m., cops and sources said. She was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition."

[Trucked up]

Pretty surprising that police were on scene & the guy still not in cuffs after an emt was just attacked.

[Suicide_Note]

Originally Posted by Trucked up ↗

Pretty surprising that police were on scene & the guy still not in cuffs after an emt was just attacked.

That's life in a Democratic city these days. God forbid an assailant actually gets arrested for anything.

[kellyhound]

The attack was not far off from how Cpt. Allison Russo died last September. The FDNY paramedic was stabbed while just standing outside her station in Queens.

The EMS worker who was repeatedly stabbed in an ambulance by a convicted felon she was treating suffered “significant” blood loss and nerve damage to her thigh that requires additional surgery, prosecutors revealed Friday.

Rudy Garcia, 48, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on an attempted murder charge for allegedly attacking the 25-year-old Mount Sinai West first responder with a kitchen knife while en route to a hospital near West 58th Street and 9th Avenue on Wednesday night.

He stabbed her “several times while she attempted to aid him,” leaving her with “serious physical injury from the stab wounds to her chest, arm and leg,” Assistant District Attorney Lauren Breen said.

The EMT required stitches to her chest, underwent surgery on her thigh wounds and “suffered significant blood loss,” Breen said.

She will need additional surgery to repair the nerve damage in her thigh and an extended stay in the hospital, according to the prosecutor.

After Garcia was taken into custody, he bizarrely told a detective the EMTs treating him “are fake” and “kidnapped” him and argued he didn’t need medical attention, Breen said.

Judge Soma Syed ordered Garcia held on $500,000 cash bail.

Garcia has two prior felony convictions for assaulting a police officer and three misdemeanor convictions, and has at least two failures to appear, prosecutors said.

In 2017, he headbutted a police officer who was trying to arrest him for punching his sister.

He also has a prior conviction for criminal possession of a weapon for possessing a boxcutter.

His most recent brush with the law came in June after he was caught in a subway station with a knife hidden in his boot, “which is the same place he stored the secreted knife,” Breen said.

Dramatic footage shows the chaotic aftermath of Wednesday’s attack.

The EMT collapses on the ground, screaming and crying in pain as a colleague tends to her, video shows.

Garcia goes back into the ambulance as another worker yells, “What the hell is he doing? What are you doing?”

“Back off now! Keep your hands down!” Garcia yells, leaping back out

“I don’t know what happened,” Garcia can be heard saying in the video.

“You stabbed her, bro!” an EMS worker shouts back.

It's becoming a troublesome trend Oren Barzilay says. He's the president of EMS Local 2507.

His union represents 4,100 FDNY EMTs. He says attacks on them jumped from 200 in 2020 to 400 in 2021.

According to the FDNY, there have been 121 attacks on EMTs so far this year.

"Our members are used as practice punching bags and we need more police presence with us on a lot of these calls," Barzilay said.

The EMT's union released a statement saying:

"The horrific stabbing of an EMT by her patient last night underscores the dangers faced by emergency medical workers every day. 1199SEIU is closely monitoring the situation and our members are praying for their colleague's swift and full recovery.

Violence against healthcare workers is all too common, and New York must do all it can to ensure that these frontline heroes are able to do their jobs free from the threat of physical harm.

More resources must be directed towards the staffing and safety of EMTs and paramedics citywide, so that workers aren't placed in situations where they are unable to protect themselves.

Ensuring appropriate staffing levels, shifts, rest time, enhanced training on de-escalation and situational awareness, and the support of other first responders is imperative.

All workers have the right to a safe workplace, and in the field of healthcare-where often every second counts to save a life-this is especially critical."


Too many people with mental health problems not to mention drugs and cutbacks in healthcare because of the high costs. Psychiatric patients simply aren’t as lucrative as other patients.

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York, Governor Cuomo suspended the Certificate of Need applications which require hospitals to go through a public process before closing or changing services. Consequently, hospital administrations have been emboldened, closing their inpatient psychiatric units, often without clarifying to nurses or the community whether these moves are temporary or permanent.

Beginning in late 2020, Cuomo faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. An investigation commissioned by New York attorney general Letitia James reported in August 2021 that Cuomo sexually harassed at least eleven women during his time in office, for which Cuomo faces criminal investigations.

Following the release of the attorney general's report, Cuomo was called to resign by President Joe Biden. On August 23, Cuomo officially resigned from office and was succeeded by his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul.

Hope she does a better job as:
Between 2015 and 2018, NYPD calls reporting emotionally disturbed persons increased about 23%.

In the same time frame, according to HUD data, the seriously mentally ill homeless population in NYC jumped 23%.

Since the onset of the COVID crisis, calls to New York City’s Mental Health Hotline and NAMI’s suicide hotline have skyrocketed.

In 2000 New York State had 6,055 certified inpatient psychiatric beds. By 2018 that number had dropped 12% to 5,419.

In New York City particularly, inpatient psychiatric care has dropped at the same time as the population and the need have mushroomed. NYC accounts for 72% of the decline in inpatient psychiatric beds between 2000 and 2019, a total loss of 459 beds.

Another 17% of the total bed decline came from the Long Island Region. NYC gained nearly 400,000 residents in this timeframe; Suffolk and Nassau counties gained 100,000 people.

[AnaleFaust]

Originally Posted by Trucked up ↗

Pretty surprising that police were on scene & the guy still not in cuffs after an emt was just attacked.

You go to prison for arresting or subdueing dangerous people in America in 2023

[Pyramid_Head]

Attacking an EMT is pretty fucking low.

[viewingrealitygyal]

Remember when people wanted social workers to show up to mental health and DV calls?

[LadyCPlum]

EMTs aren't given the credit they deserve or what can be a pretty dangerous job at times. Why was the guy not tied down BEFORE he was loaded into the ambulance???

[LadyCPlum]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

Too many people with mental health problems not to mention drugs and cutbacks in healthcare because of the high costs. Psychiatric patients simply aren’t as lucrative as other patients.

You hit the nail right on the head.