Nothing really suprising in the report for anyone that's been in EMS. I can tell you that as the EMT on a call, I'm the "beach" for the firefighters.

For example... even though they have union jobs, >$70K/year, health insurance, and come in teams of 4 (on an engine)... they often made me and my partner carry the patient down the stairs - we who were lucky to be making $10/hr, no benefits, and very little gaurantee that if injured we'd even get workman's comp.

And the patients are rarely better. The term "bus" used on the East Coast is pretty apt. My favorite examples.. my first call ever. A traffic accident... an hour ago... the person that called was a doc... needed to get to work, and "coincidentally" we found ourselved headed to that hospital's ER. example number 2, another car wreck, for a lady with a nose bleed that wasn't bleeding. Yep, nothing wrong with her either.