Midnight attack on two medics
A COMMUNITY medic has detailed a harrowing attack on two colleagues held at gunand knifepoint before being robbed of their belongings.
The two volunteer medics had been responding to an emergency call about a resident who was stabbed in Dunoon just before midnight on Saturday.
The medics were part of a group of six attending to the incident.
Among them was Milan Sosic, a city firefighter and a medic volunteer. He told the Cape Times the two assailants approached a woman medic and her husband.
Community Medics is a public benefit organisation (PBO) dedicated to bringing free medical assistance in times of an emergency to those in need.
Sosic said they had rushed to the scene, thinking of saving the patient’s life, only to be robbed.
“Normally when you get a call like that you think worsecase scenario… how the person’s life might be endangered, so we rushed to the area with two vehicles. It was midnight so for safety reasons we decided the numbers would be better for us.
“We initiated medical assistance to the man and while we waited for an ambulance, the incident happened,” Sosic said.
“It’s disappointing and sad that young people are doing this. My colleagues, who were robbed of two cellphones and cash, said the guys looked very young… maybe aged 18 or less.
“After robbing the two medics the men went to the second vehicle, smashed the driver’s window with a brick and took the Navstar GPS. We are lucky and grateful no one was hurt,” Sosic said.
The other medics were inside the residence treating the patient, while one medic was outside with his wife, Community Medics spokesperson Kim Jurgens said.
“Everything happened fast. They recall the men approaching them and were whispering to each other.
“The wife noticed something was not right and when men noticed they would run, one pointed a firearm while the other had a large knife.
“They demanded their personal valuables. Some of our equipment was stolen,” Jurgens said.
She applauded the family of the patient as they had risked their lives and protected the crew from the criminals.
“This was one of two attacks on EMS crews overnight, hence we are calling to be escorted when responding to communities where there might danger to our crews at night and also for the communities, police, city and government to work together and end attacks on medics,” Jurgens said.
About 40 attacks on ambulance crews have been reported since January, according to a provincial government report.