No. Way. In. Hell.

A lot of Facebook friends have shared this video with me:

If I ever had a partner who drove like that, especially with me and a patient in back, I’d whip his ass in the ambulance bay as soon as we cleared the patient off our stretcher.

From the Jalopnik article:

For ambulance drivers, the route back to the hospital is even more difficult as they have to take into account that their patient’s condition can turn for the worst if the ride is too rough in the back.

I can tell you from long experience, what you see on that camera is easily ten times as rough in the back of the ambulance. There is no way in hell you can perform adequate patient care traveling like that, and if your only way to handle a critical patient is to drive like that, you may as well fit taxi cabs with lights and siren, because you aren’t doing jack shit but trying not to get tossed into the cabinetry.

For me to transport a patient to the hospital with lights and siren, three things have to be true:

1. The patient is truly in danger of expiring in the next few moments.
2. The life-saving intervention is time-critical.
3. That intervention is something I cannot provide, but the Emergency Department can.

That’s damned few patients, and even the ones that do qualify will never ever get a ride like that. I don’t care how skilled the ambulance driver is, all it takes is one motorist who isn’t skilled, and people die.

This is Hungary in the video, but if you drive like this in an EMS system in the United States, or if you think it would be cool if this was allowed at your agency, do my profession and the public a favor and and go seek a rewarding career in the fast food service industry.