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Ambo cooked prawn on heart attack victim
Article from: The Daily Telegraph

September 17, 2008 12:00am

AN ambulance man placed a prawn on the chin of a patient awaiting electric shock treatment for a heart attack and joked: ‘Let’s see if we can cook this prawn,’ a medical panel has been told.
While paramedics prepared to use a defibrillator, ambulance technician John Jones allegedly took a prawn from a colander in the patient’s sink and asked: ‘Does anybody want a prawn?’

After the electric shock had been given, Mr Jones is reported to have said: ‘360 joules won’t cook a prawn.’

The allegation by paramedic Darren Claydon comes days after he told the same hearing how a fellow paramedic - called Clive Greedy - had munched on celery while taking part in efforts to resuscitate the same dying patient.

Mr Jones was later dismissed, the Health Profession’s Council panel heard.
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Sounds like a great way to save time and money!

Inappropriate employee behavior; appropriate council decision.

I find Clive Greedy’s actions more inexcusable than those of John Jones.  Sometimes a little joking around in those sorts of situations can be a good thing, since it can distract the patient and ease his worry a bit.  Of course some level of common sense and sensitivity is still required, and sticking a raw prawn on the guy’s face is taking things perhaps a tad too far. . .but he just might have been trying to lift the guy’s spirits even if it was in a totally inappropriate manner.

On the other hand, taking the guy’s food and eating it uninvited is simply gauche.