A PARAMEDIC who stood
with his hands in his pockets as a hospital patient died of a heart attack
in front of him has been allowed to keep his job.
“Callous and uncaring” Matthew Geary, 36, smiled as he was told he would be
allowed to continue working by the Health & Care Professionals Council.
The neglectful ambulance worker had brought Carl Cope, 47, to Walsall Manor
Hospital but stood by as the patient suddenly collapsed because of a long
standing heart condition.
Geary had escaped a jail term in February of last year but was convicted of
failing to undertake his duty at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Handing down an eight-month suspended sentence, Judge John Warner described
him as “callous and uncaring”.
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He added that Geary had “formed a view not to waste his time on” Mr Cope once
he arrived in A&E and told him: “You did nothing at all to help as a
paramedic, or as a human being.”
Although declared fit to work by the professional panel, the paramedic was
given a set of 10 conditions that included not being allowed to work in a
single-handed vehicle for at least three months.
Ian Hughes, the panel chairman, said: “[Geary] has fully accepted he had not
taken the appropriate level of assessment and should not have left the
patient on his own. The panel has accepted [his] remorse and regret of what
happened.”
Geary had told the panel: “I am genuinely sorry that the gentleman passed away
but … I am the only one who ended up with a criminal record and I
genuinely feel that other people should have been made to be accountable for
their actions as well.”
Simon Hoyle, representing the disgraced paramedic, told the panel the criminal
trial had been unfair. He said: “Mr Geary has been judged until today’s
hearing on a very limited set of evidence that has been produced to make him
look as bad as possible.”