TV shows blamed for rise in attacks on Hungarian ambulance workers

While the actual number of assaults on ambulance staff is not particularly high - 37 cases were registered in 160,000 ambulance runs - medics are nervous and say that television dramas focusing on emergency medicine are partly to blame, wrote Monday's national daily Népszabadság.

Most assaults on emergency medical staff occur in the patient's home, and in a good number of cases, the patient is the attacker. Patients suffering excessive pain have assaulted emergency workers who opt for hospitalization rather than pain medication, said Géza Breintenbach of the North Hungary Emergency Services.

Breintenbach also tells of a resuscitation attempt interrupted by a raging family member. Screaming that the doctors on television would have been far more effective, he broke a doctor's rib before he could be pulled off.

Other breakages have included eyeglasses, wristwatches, and dents in the ambulance itself.

While Breitenbach acknowledged that emergency staff rarely required medical attention following such assaults, he also noted that they were not really equipped to defend themselves. Nor were onlookers likely to come to their assistance. In fact, emergency workers really only can count on police, he said, and it is generally police who put an end to these assaults, he told Népszabadság.

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