Ambulance worker 'put prawn on heart attack man's head to see if he could cook it with electric shock'

An ambulance man placed a prawn on the chin of a patient awaiting electric shock treatment for a heart attack and joked: 'Let's see if we can cook this prawn,' a medical panel has been told.

While paramedics prepared to use a defibrillator, ambulance technician John Jones allegedly took a prawn from a colander in the patient's sink and asked: 'Does anybody want a prawn?'

After the electric shock had been given, Mr Jones is reported to have said: '360 joules won’t cook a prawn.'

The allegation by paramedic Darren Claydon comes days after he told the same hearing how a fellow paramedic - called Clive Greedy - had munched on celery while taking part in efforts to resuscitate the same dying patient.

Mr Jones was later dismissed, the Health Profession's Council panel heard.

Chairman Dr Alexander Yule said: 'The panel finds Mr Claydon to be a credible witness.'

Mr Claydon told the hearing Mr Greedy had said 'nice celery' and appeared to be eating from a stick of it that he was holding.

Mr Greedy, who was at first given only a formal verbal warning, was also later dismissed.

He had appealed and gone to an employment tribunal unsuccessfully, the hearing was told.

The HPC said Mr Greedy's behaviour amounted to misconduct and that his fitness to practise was impaired.

Munched celery: Paramedic Clive Greedy

'We find proved that Mr Greedy took and ate a stick of celery while the patient was being resuscitated.

'It is clearly wrong and insensitive to behave in this way in a patient's home while on duty.'

The panel said Mr Greedy would be suspended for six months - though it stopped short of striking him off the register.

It accepted that the alleged horseplay caused no harm to the patient - who died later in hospital - and said it was an isolated incident in an otherwise unblemished career for Mr Greedy.

The hearing in London was told that Mr Greedy, working for the Isle of Wight ambulance service, had been taking part with Mr Claydon and Mr Jones in efforts to save a man who had collapsed in his kitchen on Easter Sunday 2006.

Mr Greedy, who was absent from the hearing and was not represented, denied the allegations.

The patient’s widow said in a statement: 'I could not believe any individual would act in such a manner.'