EMTs Attacked on Memorial Day 2010 Speak Up

It's a day they will never forget and can't seem to escape even three years later. 

Carylyn McEntee and Lynn Briggs, two of three Amherst EMTs who were viciously attacked by a combative patient on Memorial Day 2010, recently spent more than an hour talking to State Rep. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, on his show "Speak Up" about the day of the attack, the injuries they sustained and the surgeries they continue to undergo more than three years after the incident that unfolded in Mont Vernon.

They also spoke about the ways they believe the accused attacker's case has been mishandled in the court system and of being left completely out of the loop despite the fact that they became the victims of Adrienne Valdez, the day they responded to help her when they were called to her Mont Vernon home because she was allegedly having difficulty breathing.

Avard, a regular Patch blogger, recently posted the interview as a blog post titled "Emergency Responders Denied Due Process"

During the hour and 15-minute long interview, McEntee and Briggs detail for Avard the incidents of that day and how in the months following the attack, how they watch from the sidelines, left out of the loop when it came to Valdez's charges, how they were reduced and how she was moved into a mental health program they understood to be used for petty criminals, not accused felons.

They say they were told by Valdez and her father when they responded to the home that she was no on then nor had she ever been on a long-term prescription medication. However, just weeks later in court, her violent actions were blamed on a bad reaction between multiple prescription drugs she reportedly was on at the time, the pair says.

Both McEntee and Briggs said they suffered serious injuries when Valdez head butted, hit, kicked, spit on and bit the EMTs while her father stood looking on, only asking the EMTs not to injure his daughter while they restrained her as they waited for police.

McEntee said some of her injuries included and ruptured disc in her neck that has caught cervical spine issues, a broken hand, a serious bite wound to the elbow and more. She's undergone three operations on her hand alone and after her third one in July, she's finally got feeling back in her fingers, she told Avard.

Among Briggs' injuries sustained in the incident she had a subluxated jaw from a head butt that has reduced the range of motion in her jaw, she's had two surgeries on her arm which was broken in the incident and she's undergone nine hours of cardiac procedures due to another head butt that caused her sternum and rib cage to shift, causing heart problems.

Read Avard's blog here and watch the interview linked at the bottom of his post.