This is a weird story. By now, if you've been on this earth for more than a few years, you probably know that most places consider it illegal to impersonate, say, a police officer.
But what about a paramedic? In many ways, that might be a scarier thing to contemplate.
When you encounter a paramedic, usually it's because you or someone you care about needs serious medical attention right now. It's often the kind of situation where your first thought is probably not to ask for some ID and credentials about the person, you know?
Usually, you're stressed out, and you want either yourself or whoever is injured to get the care they need ASAP. And if you're at an event, then you assume that the event organizers have a real paramedic who knows their stuff on hand, so you're probably even less likely to give them the third degree before you let them touch your kid.
Evidently, that isn't always a safe bet. On December 12, 2024, a man named Lachlan Gardner from Sydney, Australia was convicted for falsely claiming to be a paramedic.
As the story goes, throughout 2023, he represented himself as such at a series of motocross events held in the far-flung reaches of New South Wales, Australia. You know, the kinds of places that are well away from densely populated areas and the well-equipped medical facilities they usually have. That means, in many cases, if serious injuries were to occur at such events, they'd almost certainly require the patient to be airlifted to a suitable medical facility.
If you're wondering why someone would do this, so am I. Maybe you're feeling charitable, and you're wondering if the guy was, perhaps a former paramedic who no longer had his license, but still wanted to help people anyway?
Unfortunately, he was not. Not that it would've been okay if he was; only that it would perhaps have been a little more understandable, you know?
The magistrate who decided this case, Theo Tsavdaridis, found that Gardner only had a few of the numerous qualifications that the Paramedicine Board of Australia requires for licensed paramedics. These include first aid, pain management, and emergency patient transport. A full list of Paramedicine Board of Australia paramedic qualification requirements can be found here.
It's not clear why, if Gardner wanted to offer such services, he didn't go on to complete the remaining qualifications required to become a real, true, licensed paramedic. Cost may have been an issue, as it's not cheap to complete all the schooling necessary, but we don't know for certain if that was the case.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency (AHPRA) began investigating Gardner and eventually brought the case before the magistrate, who noted that Gardner continued to falsely represent himself as a paramedic to MX events even after he knew he was under investigation, as recently as September 2023.
Gardner offered his services as part of a firm called Event Health Services NSW. A search of the Australian Business Register shows this business name registered to a single individual: Lachlan Gardner. For what it's worth, he also operated another seemingly related business noted in the register, called MotoX Medical. Registrations for both business entities expired on February 5, 2023.
In prosecuting the case, the AHPRA called out one specific incident from May 2023. At the time, a 10-year-old boy reportedly did a jump during practice that ended in a crash. He was unconscious.
Gardner was on the scene, and called Australia's emergency services number, 000. Because he said he was a paramedic, the AHPRA said, the operator believed that he did not need step-by-step instructions to care for the boy until he could receive full medical attention. He regained consciousness, and was then airlifted to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed the boy with both a brain bleed and cracked vertebrae, and was treated in the ICU.
It's worth noting that the young rider went on to make a full recovery, and that the AHPRA specifically states "there is no evidence Mr. Gardner's offending caused any harm to the injured child."
In another instance, also in May 2023, an eight-year-old boy crashed and landed on his back. Gardner, who was unregistered as a paramedic, nonetheless gave him an unspecified pain medication. The implication from the court case is that it was stronger than a couple of aspirin, but it's not clear what specifically was involved.
Now, the maximum penalty for Gardner's crimes could have involved up to three years in prison, on top of an AUD $60,000 fine (that's about US $38,500, if you wondered). But the magistrate said that Gardner's show of remorse, as well as his motivation to become a healthcare worker because he'd witnessed his dad knocked unconscious when he was a child, moved him to a lighter sentence.
He'll need to pay $5,000 in legal costs, as well as be on his best behavior under a 24-month Community Corrections Order. The board, as well as the magistrate, wanted this conviction to send a message to anyone else who might think it's a good idea to falsely impersonate medical professionals and a level of expertise they don't have.
It's one thing to be a concerned citizen with an ice pack, or to have taken CPR training and be ready to help in a pinch if something goes wrong. No one would be mad about that; he'd just be a caring local citizen. But the point about the level of trust most people inherently place in someone who says they're a paramedic is a strong one.
What do you think? Was this guy's punishment appropriate? Do you have any alarming fake paramedic stories to share? Let us know in the comments.
