Ambulance Chaser

A couple of months back I was driving home from an event at around midnight when I was passed out by a Garda car on lights. I thought nothing more of it until I came across the RTA that they had been responding to. As there was no HSE Ambulance on scene yet I pulled over and asked the Guards if they wanted assistance. The Guards confirmed that they were still waiting for a HSE ambulance to be dispatched to them so were grateful for my assistance.

I approached the lady who was driving the car and was by now in the passenger seat and introduced myself to her. The first thing that I was aware of was a strong smell of alcohol in the vehicle and she admitted to having consumed a few drinks. She had no obvious injuries and confirmed several times that she was fine. Despite this I still advised her to get checked out in A&E and she then said that she did not want to go to hospital.

I have a policy of repeating this question several times before getting them to sign the paperwork and followd this policy. After the third refusal I advised the Guards to cancel the ambulance request and then proceeded to read the refusal part of the paperwork out to the lady. On the mention of the word refusal she turned around and said that she wasnt refusing to go to Hospital. I asked her again did she want to go to hospital and she replied no I dont. I then pointed out to her that by saying no she didnt want to go to hospital she was essentially refusing to go to hospital. I then asked her that If I had an ambulance here to take her to hospital would she get in the Ambulance and go to the hospital for a checkup, she replied no.

At this stage the Guards were getting annoyed and I turned around and asked them would they sign the form witnissing that she had refuse to go to hospital five times despite my advise to get checked out. They agreed to sign the form and I stepped back to allow them to carry out the procedures that they needed to complete.

While I was giving my details to one of the other guards for them to fill in their paperwork she was assisted out of the car and started to be guided towards the nearest garda car. She then saw me again this time and walked in my direction and started to demand to know my "role in all this". I advised her that I was there to ensure her safety and health and to advise her to go to hospital. She then demanded why I needed to know her information (ie name, address etc) and I advised her that I required the information for the Patient Report forms which detailed the examination and treatment that I gave her.

What happened next surprised us all and she started screaming at me that I was an Ambulance Chaser much to the amusement of the guards considering I had been driving an ambulance there which was behind us with lights flashing. At this stage she was politely but firmly escorted to the Garda Car and taken to the nearest Garda Station to be brethalysed and so on.

Ambulance chaser indeed...