Julie's Story

Paramedic Julie Owen decided to leave her job after she was verbally abused and spat at.

Julie said the attack by a patient’s daughter in Shotton, Flintshire, left her ‘hyper aware’ of threats and no longer interested in the job she once loved.

She said: “I’ve suffered violence and aggression of many kinds over my 20-year career, and I guess this is the last one I’m prepared to deal with.

“They build up and up, and one day just become too much.

“I feared for my life that night, and the impact on me was something I didn’t expect.

“Is going home in one piece too much to ask?”

Julie and her colleague Emma Griffiths, an emergency medical technician, were responding to a medical emergency when the patient’s daughter became aggressive.

Emma said: “We could hear shouting and screaming before we’d even entered the property.

“As we tried to treat the patient, her daughter took exception to the fact we’d asked her not to light a cigarette around the oxygen cylinder, which is flammable.

“At one point she tried to block the doorway with her hand, and when I asked her to move it, she started shouting about how useless we were and called me a fat, blonde bimbo.

“She was jumping up and down like a lunatic and was unstoppable.

“I’ve been verbally abused many times over my career, but this was my first physical assault.

“It shook me up because we were there to help.

“Assault should never be part of the job.”

Julie said: “She was verbally abusive throughout, and when we went to get pain relief for her mum, she became physically aggressive too.

“She threw glass at us, spat at us and came right up to our faces trying to punch us.”

Julie and Emma called for police back-up and the patient’s daughter was arrested.

Julie said: “Thank goodness the police responded so quickly and came to our aid.

“It’s unacceptable to assault any emergency worker – they’re there to help.

“I love my job as a paramedic but since the incident have lost interest in it and am hyper aware of what I could be facing in the community.

“To that end, I’ve decided to hang up my boots and secure another role in the service which means I’ll have less patient-facing contact.

“It’s a very sad way for me to end my career as a road paramedic.”

At Mold Magistrates’ Court in February 2024, Kirsty Walker was jailed for 20 weeks after admitting three offences of assaulting an emergency worker and one of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.

She was also ordered to pay £50 in compensation to each of her victims.

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