n Arenac County jury on Thursday convicted a former paramedic of molesting a 15-year-old patient as she was transported to a Standish hospital.The jury found David Spresny, 42, guilty of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 15-year felony involving penetration. Jurors dismissed three other charges against Spresny.

Arenac Circuit Judge Ronald Bergeron ordered Spresny’s bond revoked and officers escorted him to the county jail where he will await sentencing. Bergeron didn’t set a sentencing date.

Spresny’s conviction stems from his arrest last July when an Alger teen complained she’d been assaulted while she lay injured, strapped to a backboard, in the Mobile Medical Response ambulance. MMR officials suspended the

13-year employee after he was charged.

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David Young, EMS director at Floyd Medical Center, was relieved of his duties Tuesday, a little more than a week after complaints surfaced about working and safety conditions in the department. Kurt Stuenkel, FMC president, said he relieved Young of his duties after numerous individual meetings with EMS personnel.

Stuenkel met with employees in the department last week to hear their concerns and set up nine task forces to address their concerns.

“I got enough information from employees to know that now is the time for a change in leadership,” said Stuenkel, who said he met with Young on Tuesday but wouldn’t elaborate about what issues led to the dismissal. “Suffice to say I’ve heard enough that indicates we clearly need new leadership.”

James Coughlin, director of retention and recruitment, will serve as administrative coordinator, said Stuenkel.

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Investigation into missing narcotics and a Bradley County Emergency Medical Service employee’s alleged involvement continues. According to Captain Steve Lawson of the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office, Tennessee Bureau of Investigations agents were expected to join the investigation on Friday.

“The employee in question (Rodney Fine) has a history of medical problems and was currently being treated for pain management and has self-enrolled a professional treatment program for 10-14 weeks. He is currently being allowed to use sick leave with pay,” said BCEMS director Danny Lawson.

Allegations of missing narcotics such as morphine, Valium and Ativan were made Christmas Eve, when Lawson filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office.

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Two Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services commanders and four instructors were punished Friday in connection with accusations of sexual harassment stemming from a November training session.

During pretraining exercises, an EMS commander dropped her pants and mooned cadets, and other instructors used vulgarity and racial slurs, an EMS official said Friday.

The two commanders involved in the incident have been put on probation, removed from the training academy and given temporary suspensions, said Ernesto Rodriguez, acting director of Austin-Travis County EMS. The four instructors who were involved in the exercise were reprimanded, he said. Two volunteer trainers who were at the exercise will be replaced during training by EMS staff.

EMS released a report on the incident Friday written by an outside investigator.

Rodriguez called the behavior of the staff members who were disciplined “completely unacceptable.”

“I will not tolerate this,” he said.

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Sydney L. Bender of Fairview Heights is apparently suing herself as well as an ambulance driver for an accident that left her infant son permanently injured two years ago.

According to a lawsuit filed Dec. 20 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, Bender was attempting a left hand turn onto North Ruby from Lincoln Trail in Fairview Heights when she was struck by an LPG Ambulance driven by Jeffrey L. Scott of Madison County.

Bender’s son, Nathan J. Bender, a passenger, was one-month-old at the time of the accident on Jan. 5, 2006. He sustained a severe and permanent head injury, the suit says.

Sydney L. Bender is listed as an indvidual plaintiff and as a plaintiff acting on behalf of her son. Sydney L. Bender also is named as a defendant in the complaint.

“Defendant Sydney L. Bender negligently and carelessly caused the vehicle she was operating to strike Defendant’s emergency vehicle,” the complaint states.

The ambulance service, Mission Care of Illinois LLC, is blamed for its driver’s “excessive rate of speed.”

“Defendant Jeffrey L. Scott, while in the scope of his employment with Defendant Mission Care of Illinois, LLC f/k/a LPG Ambulance Service of Illinois, negligently and carelessly caused the emergency vehicle he was operating to strike Plaintiff’s vehicle,” the complaint states.

Bender seeks damages in excess of $50,000 for her son’s incurred medical expenses and future care.

Bender is represented by Sheldon Weinstein of Cofman & Townsley in St. Louis. Weinstein has been contacted for comment, but at press time had not returned a phone call.

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The director of the Sumner County Emergency Medical Services is in police custody Wednesday, charged with theft and falsifying documents, both misdemeanor charges.

Sumner County investigators said Dennis Wallace instructed an employee to use a county credit card to charge things for non-county EMS use.

Authorities also allege Wallace took 300 hours of vacation time and 100 hours of sick time and did not document it.

He is currently in the Sumner County Jail.

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Police arrested a volunteer ambulance driver for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol early Saturday morning after he responded to a call to transport a hospital patient to another medical facility, officials said. The 44-year-old volunteer was serving as a backup driver from his home that morning when he heard a call for an additional driver, said Payson Fire Chief Scott Spencer.

“There were no patients on board though,” said Spencer.

The volunteer had apparently been drinking at home before he left to pick up an ambulance and a two-man EMT crew late Friday night to take a patient from Payson’s Mountain View Hospital to Provo’s Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, officials said.

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A Bradley County EMS worker is on leave after he reportedly admitted to stealing narcotics.

This story was first reported in the Cleveland Daily Banner Sunday. The worker’s name is Rodney Fine; he’s currently on paid administrative leave while the Bradley County Sheriff’s Department investigates what happened to the vials of pain medication. Stine worked at the main EMS station on Paul Huff Parkway in Cleveland. According to an incident report from the Sheriff’s Department, EMS Director Danny Lawson was the person who notified police of the stolen narcotics. The report says Fine appeared to be intoxicated at work on December 23rd.

A department supervisor then inventoried the medication and noticed vials of Morphine, Valium and Ativan were missing. Several EMS workers went to Fine’s house and in the report, it’s stated he admitted to taking the narcotics and said he wanted help.

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An official investigation is now underway after allegations of some sort of altercation between Houston police officers and emergency medical technicians at an accident scene. Now officials on both sides are trying to piece together what exactly happened.

Right now not much is being said about what went on, but Houston police tell us they’re looking into the incident.

Both the HPD and HFD confirm to us that an investigation is underway over an altercation between a Houston police officer and a fire department EMT.

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A lawsuit filed by the family of a living man who was declared dead, packed into a body bag and taken to a morgue charges the mistake led to injuries from which he might never recover.

Larry D. Green, who now lives in a nursing home in Wilson, was waking across a highway north of Louisburg in January 2005 when he was hit by a car. At the scene, the lawsuit alleges, medical officials inadequately checked his vital signs, failing to notice that his heart was still beating even though he didn’t have a noticeable pulse and didn’t appear to be breathing.

The lawsuit charges that emergency responders didn’t use monitors ‚Äî such as an electrocardiogram monitor or a stethoscope ‚Äî that would have shown that Green was still alive.

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Cleveland EMS workers have won the right for some paramedics to work 12-hour shifts.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry ruled in favor of the union this morning, reinforcing an arbitrator’s ruling. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the union last month. The city appealed the ruling.

EMS Commissioner said the city favors eight-hour shifts because it keep more ambulances on the street and saves the city about $500,000 a year in overtime.

More importantly, the eight-hour shifts cut the average response times by more than one minute, Eckart said. The city will not appeal the ruling again and will monitor the situation, he said.

Stephen Palek, head of the Cleveland Association of Rescue Employees Local 1975, said about half of the city’s paramedics will work 12-hour shifts and the remainder will work eight-hour shifts.

Palek said the city is trying to strike fear into residents about the dangers of the longer shifts.

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The widower and children of a woman who jumped to her death from a moving ambulance on Interstate 25 has filed a lawsuit accusing the ambulance company of negligence.Mellissa Watkins, 36, of Aurora, died July 8. A crew from Action Care Ambulance Inc. was transporting Watkins from a hospital in Parker to a hospital in Louisville when she jumped, Greenwood Village police have said.

No cars struck her, but she died later at a hospital in Englewood.

Bill Wallace, vice president of Action Care, declined to comment Friday, citing the pending litigation.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court said Action Care had received hospital records indicating Watkins had attempted suicide in the past 24 hours and had a history of suicide attempts.

The lawsuit also said shoulder harnesses were not used to restrain Watkins, and the rear door of the ambulance was unlocked, unlike other ambulances that Action Care used that had automatically locking back doors.

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A woman being taken by ambulance to a hospital Saturday told investigators she was fading in and out of consciousness and when she awoke felt a paramedic rubbing her genitals, according to a court affidavit filed Tuesday.

Lannie Haszard, 61, who worked for American Medical Response, was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. The charges relate to inappropriate sexual contact with a person who was physically helpless, court records show.

Haszard admitted to Portland Detective Rich Rumble that he had been alone with the woman in the back of the ambulance and touched her inappropriately, the affidavit says.

After his police interview, he wrote an apology:

“I am very sorry I did this to you. . . . Please accept my deepest apologies for my actions during our contact. . . . I will attempt to seek some help so I do not ever do anything like this again.”

A grand jury is expected to hear the case in the next week. Haszard, held on $500,000 bail, will be back in court Dec. 19.

Haszard had worked for AMR ambulance since the early 1990s. Once the complaint was made Saturday, he was placed on administrative leave, and upon his arrest Monday, no longer works for the company, said Lucie Drum, AMR spokeswoman.

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