A Tasmanian paramedic who was fired after he was accused of improperly removing a ping pong ball from a woman’s body has failed in his bid to be reinstated.
The incident occurred in the early hours of December 14, 2020, when a woman called ‘000’ from Old Beach just before 11pm on December 13.
The woman told the operator a ping pong ball was stuck in her vagina, but she was “pretty good” and “just laying there”.
The ambulance arrived at the woman’s house around 4:30am, almost six hours after the initial call for help.
The woman reportedly undressed and lay on the couch, where a female ambulance officer parted her labia.
The male paramedic, who is based out of New Norfolk, then inserted medical forceps into the patient’s vagina “to a sufficient depth to make contact with the ping pong ball”.
He then determined the ping pong ball could not be easily removed and the woman was transported to the Royal Hobart Hospital.
The paramedic was fired in June 2022, almost two years after the incident.
He told the Tasmanian Industrial Commission that he was only undertaking an examination to see if he could remove the object.
He said the woman had been adamant she didn’t want to go to hospital and had asked him to remove the ball instead.
The Commission found the officer was attempting to remove the object, without appropriate training and with an inappropriate instrument, which was outside his scope of practice.
It ruled this was a valid reason for termination and that the conduct was serious.
The Commission was not persuaded that the termination was unfair or unjust and dismissed the application for reinstatement.
