Paramedic's desperate plea for public to wear masks around emergency workers
23 December 2020, 11:49
Desperate plea from paramedic to wear masks around emergency workers
This paramedic told LBC her experiences on the frontline in the fight against Covid-19 as she asked listeners for just one thing...
After a difficult year when the country turned to the NHS like never before, James O'Brien opened the phone lines and invited calls from those who have needed the National Health Service this year.
Rachel in Woking called in and told James she works on the frontline of the NHS not only as a paramedic but also as a community nurse.
With a husband who is a police officer James branded her and her partner as "the backbone of this country."
Telling LBC she feels fragile at the moment, she said everything feels different at the moment as if something has changed over the last week.
"We're breaking," she told James.
But she said she just wanted to make a plea to the public.
"Your NHS needs you... We are humans, my colleagues the paramedics, the ambulance crews, the doctors, the nurses all of the teams.
"We're human. We catch this awful disease, so please protect us. If you call us to your home, if you know that somebody in that house is Covid-19 positive, please all wear a mask."
With emotion in her voice paramedic, Rachael urged people to keep space when around emergency workers.
Revealing to LBC "every single day" when she walks into people's houses she is experiencing people refusing to wear masks.
She even said emergency workers were receiving abuse.
James told his listeners they should not just listen to the caller's words, but really listen to the tone of her voice.
James wanted to "apply some punctuation" after the moving plea from the frontline healthcare worker.
James asked what people were going to ask of healthcare workers if they need to ring 999.
"What is Rachael, who you have never met, and whose name you may never know, if she arrives on your doorstep with her colleagues, with the ambulance at the bottom of your path.
"What are you asking of her? You're asking her to put herself in harm's way and to priorities your family member or your health above her own."
"And she will move heave and earth, like all of her colleagues, to help you. A complete stranger."
"And all she's asking you to do is put a bloody mask on."
