By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
An attack on a Magen David Adom medic who accompanied a patient with partially amputated fingers to Western Galilee Government Hospital in Nahariya early Wednesday morning has aroused protests from MDA management.
MDA director-general Eli Bin said Wednesday that the case was not the first in the area in which ambulance personnel were attacked by patients or their friends and relatives.
A man with two partially amputated fingers arrived at the Acre MDA station around midnight.
After initial treatment, he was rushed to the Nahariya hospital via ambulance with two friends accompanying him inside.
When the vehicle arrived at the entrance of the emergency room, the friends hit a medic in his face, causing serious trauma to his left eye and ear.
When security personnel noticed, they rushed to aid the medic and were attacked themselves.
The attackers were eventually arrested and sent to police lockup. The medic, who needed medical treatment, filed a complaint against them with the police.
Bin said that, only a few days ago, a similar incident occurred when a mobile intensive care unit reached the site of a road accident in Deir el-Assad.
One of the medics was attacked by someone who opened the ambulance door and hit him repeatedly in the chest "for no reason."
The MDA chief denounced the behavior of ruffians and called on the authorities to protect MDA staff from all violence and to punish offenders.