Respect, justice missing
THERE won’t be much competition for any award for the most used new phrase of 2017. It surely has to be: “The world has gone mad!”
Sadly, it’s dangerously close to the truth.
In recent months, our focus has been (quite rightly) on horrific events such as the terrorism unleashed in Manchester and in Brighton. But an altogether different kind of terrorism deserves our immediate and proper attention.
Two weeks ago, a close friend was unable to keep his appointment with Professor Patrick PritzwaldStegmann, the thoracic surgeon who, just two months earlier, had saved his life by removing a life-threatening cancer from his left lung.
So why “terrorism”? Well, he couldn’t see his doctor because that renowned surgeon was fighting for his own life, having fallen victim to an act of brutality perpetrated in a place meant to be one of healing and safety.
Reports of that disgraceful assault at Box Hill Hospital must have sent a chill through the hearts of all who have one.
The attack has certainly brought a small family enormous pain and grief, as they continue to keep vigil over their stricken husband and father.
His two small daughters have just recently started school. Occasionally he has brought them to the hospital to meet his patients, so that they can better understand that Daddy is a healer who makes sick people better. Even little children can understand that without difficulty.
Sadly though, some people, considerably older than those children, cannot appreciate that we share this world with others. They fail to understand that qualities such as respect, compassion and justice are central to our way of life.
They don’t recognise that a hospital, of all places, is a place of healing and goodness, and that any one of us can need the skills and dedication of hospital staff at any time — for anything from an accidental cut to a condition that puts our life in serious danger.
So from any perspective, hospital personnel should be afforded the highest protection of the law. And along with them, those many others on whom we rely every day for our very lives — the police, ambulance personnel, firefighters, all those nowadays grouped under the heading of “first responders”.
For too many years we have read of assaults on “ambos” as they attend to people needing treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.
We have heard increasing reports of police vehicles being rammed or run off the road. Last year, more than 100 police cars were rammed and 14 police were injured as both the basic laws and the people who protect us were treated with total disregard.
The frustration of police echoed in the reported words of Deputy Police Commissioner Andrew Crisp: “It seems that offenders have become more aware if they drive in an erratic way or in fact ram our vehicles, there’s every chance we won’t take up a pursuit in relation to that particular person.”
Less than three years ago, neurosurgeon Dr Michael Wong was stabbed in the back multiple times at the Western General Hospital. Thankfully, he survived.
But Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann may not survive and if he does, what sort of life will he have?
And how many patients, how many families will be denied the extraordinary skill and healing care of a brilliant surgeon, due to the mindless stupidity of one thug?
How many experienced ambulance officers will leave the service because they can’t stand one more night of fear and tension as they risk their lives attending to people too often undeserving of that care?
And how many police will suffer from post-traumatic stress because their badge is ignored, along with the legitimate authority it carries, and aggression and violence become commonplace in how they are treated?
This is not a call for vengeance, but it is a call for justice and respect.
Assaults on “first responders”, in their workplace and in the course of their service, surely need to be addressed as deserving tougher penalties than similar crimes perpetrated on the rest of us — bad as those crimes may be.
And if we’re a little uncomfortable with that, we might be persuaded if we remember that ultimately protection of our first responders is protection of ourselves. Fr Kevin Dillon is the parish priest at St Mary’s in Geelong