Ben Vernon never saw the man pull the knife. But within moments he was being rushed to a San Diego hospital with a broken rib and punctured lung.
A firefighter paramedic with the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, Vernon was responding to an intoxicated man at a trolley stop when a bystander picked a fight with the security guards assisting his unit. He jumped in to assist. He left with life-threatening injuries. Vernon, 40, lived to talk about the attack, which underscores the threat of violence paramedics face – more often than the general public probably realizes.
Emergency medical technicians and paramedics are 14 times more likely to be violently injured on the job than the firefighters they work alongside, according to research conducted by Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health.