A young Melbourne based Kiwi paramedic has opened up about horrendous threats she's received from patients she's tried to help.
Steff Dewhust said in a Facebook post that she had been in the job less than six months when she was punched by a patient.
Ms Dewhust is one of thousands of Australian paramedics who are demanding better protection in their jobs as physical assault numbers grow.
"Another patient told me he was going to stalk me," she said on the post.
"He detailed how he was going to find out where I lived, attack me, rape me and then strangle me to death. He was escorted from the hospital and waited for me in the ambulance bay. As I walked outside, he came for me, yelling. I have never run so fast in my life."
She talked of nightmares that have to this day "rattled" her to the core.
"It's one of the few times I have genuinely felt terror. I was too afraid to walk back to the ambulance so my colleagues walked me to the truck so we could leave the hospital."
"It is NOT okay to assault paramedics. And we have had enough."
Her post comes after a meeting was requested on Friday to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in the wake of rising demand from emergency service unions.
The Police Association and Ambulance Employees Australia Victoria wrote to Mr Andrews with the backing of 20,000 police, paramedics and protective service officers.
The request comes after emergency service workers were left fuming when a County Court decision let two women off jail terms despite assaulting a paramedic.
"This manifestly unjust outcome has occurred despite Victoria's Sentencing Act 1991 mandating a custodial sentence for people convicted of assaulting an emergency services worker," the letter reads.
"We are seeking this urgent meeting with you, so that our collective members can obtain ironclad assurances by you, on behalf of the government, that you will act with urgency to guarantee that jail will mean jail for those who choose to assault an emergency services worker - no excuses."
Newshub.
