Drunk teen hospital frenzy

A YEAR 12 student has admitted drunkenly assaulting a paramedic after he was ramped at Royal Hobart Hospital, triggering a Code Black alarm before being restrained by staff and forced to wear a spit mask.

On June 16, an ambulance was called to a New Town address to assist an unconscious 18-year-old male, who later remorsefully described himself as “ten out of ten drunk”.

As paramedics placed the youth, who the Mercury has chosen not to name, in the back of the ambulance, his mother fainted.

While paramedics helped his mother, the young man began yelling from the back of the ambulance, and a decision was made to sedate him.

On arrival at RHH, the young man and his mother were ramped in the corridor, but the youth’s sedation wore off and he became agitated.

A cubicle was found for the youth, but he fled and ran through the hospital to find his mother.

Once he found her, hospital staff repeatedly asked him to move aside because he was interfering with her treatment, but the youth became aggressive and started shouting, triggering a Code Black alarm.

The youth then pushed a female paramedic in the neck with an open hand, causing her to stagger backwards.

Ambulance staff tried to remove him, but he began “lashing out”, kicking and spitting.

When police arrived, they found him lying facedown on the floor with staff members restraining him, and with a spit mask over his face.

“He was struggling violently, yelling abuse, swearing and attempting to spit on people,” a prosecutor told Hobart Magistrates Court yesterday. “He was arrested and placed in the back of a police van.”

The youth kicked the walls of the van several times and was taken into custody until he sobered up and calmed down.

In an interview with police, the young man said he could not remember the incident, but recalled waking up in hospital worried about his mother.

The normally “shy, quiet young man” added he was sorry for his actions and extremely remorseful at upsetting his mother and bringing shame to their family.

The court was told the young man had been drinking Jack Daniels and vodka but has since sworn off alcohol for life.

The youth pleaded guilty to one count of common assault through a Farsi interpreter, but Magistrate Glenn Hay decided to give him an “opportunity”, declining to record a conviction or fine him.

“Whatever happened on this occasion is quite out-of-character for you,” he said. “I’m going to give you an opportunity to provide some assurance to the community that you can do the right thing.”

In avoiding a conviction, the youth agreed to be of good behaviour for 18 months.