SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Doctors are generally regarded more highly by society than the rest of us schlubs, and rightly so: they bring us into this world, sometimes guide us out of it, and all the while in between they do their best to keep us alive.

But of course doctors are just people too, and they’re prone to the same vices and character flaws that anyone might have. For example, one MD at a hospital in Aomori Prefecture let his short temper show recently when he punched a patient in the gut during a late night visit.

But was the doc just a hothead? Or was this particular patient just so obnoxious that the assault was warranted?

Japan
(ambulance • assault • doctor • hospital • punch)

Kobe City firefighters ask you to stop calling emergency numbers for trivial stuff like sunburns

Preston Phro
Sep 14, 2015

We’ve all heard stories about absurd calls to emergency lines, from people calling about a bat in the house to a missing newspaper delivery. We like to think that these people aren’t stupid so much as too frustrated to think clearly…though we may be wrong.

Of course, Japan isn’t free of these kinds of silly emergency calls, either. In fact, a recent article received a lot of attention online when it listed some of the simply absurd emergency calls that have been made in Kobe City. Check them out below…

Japan
(ambulance • emergency services • Kobe City • weird news)

93-year-old Japanese woman gifts ambulance worth 2.7 million yen to local fire station

Meg Murphy
Mar 29, 2015

When you’re ill or your life is in danger, it’s natural to feel gratitude towards those who aided your recovery or saved your life. But what do you do to show your gratitude?

One elderly woman from Nara Prefecture, Japan, felt so grateful to the ambulances who often help her, that she decided to donate a brand new ambulance to her local fire station. And it wasn’t just any ambulance – this was a top-of-the-line model worth 2.7 million yen (over US$22,000)!

Japan
(ambulance • awesome old woman • donation • generosity)

“Help, there’s no TP!” Japan’s emergency services plagued by nonsense calls

Evie Nyan
Jan 13, 2015

Back when I was working in city hall at a small rural town in Kyoto prefecture, one of my duties involved heading to the fire station a few times a month to “role play” with the firemen. (Hey, it beat pushing papers.) To help them gain some experience with handling potential emergency calls from foreign residents, I would play the part of the panicking gaijin, often trying to come up with weird and wacky scenarios for the emergency services guys to handle. The object was to train the (almost completely non-English speaking) EMTs to pick out essential keywords such as “fire”, “car accident”, “unconscious”, etc from a barrage of English, but mostly I just had a blast inventing crazy scenarios like “my Playstation 3 just blew up and set fire to my neighbour’s poodle!”

It’s not all fun and games, however. Time-wasting calls to Japan’s emergency services numbers 119 and 110 have been a serious problem recently, with increasing numbers of people abusing the service to ask for help with a range of ridiculous scenarios, ranging from running out of toilet paper to forgetting their smartphone password…

Japan
(110 • 119 • ambulance • emergency • emergency services)

Japanese university lecturer arrested for assualting…an ambulance

Preston Phro
Nov 4, 2014

The sound of an ambulance siren could never be considered something pleasant, but it’s not really something the average person hates. It’s annoying, but then again it’s meant to be annoying–and it’s usually part of rescuing someone in need. We may not like it, but we certainly do appreciate it.

So, while most people may cringe and cover their ears when an ambulance goes screeching by, we doubt anyone would actually get mad and try to assault one!

Unless you happen to be this university lecturer…

Japan
(ambulance • crime • Tsukuba)

Some Chinese ‘ambulances’ not suited to save you

Rachel Tackett
Jun 17, 2013

It’s an ill-kept secret that China is full of various counterfeits and bootlegs. The truth of it seems harmless enough when it’s limited to Hollywood films but recently the existence of phony ambulances has been brought to light by Beijing’s Morning Post. Apparently, China’s emergency medical transport system has been dispatching ill-suited medical vans and pulling in quite a profit doing so.

China
(ambulance • health • news)

Pensioner Dies After Being Denied Treatment at 25 Different Hospitals

Philip Kendall
Mar 6, 2013

A 75-year-old man from Saitama Prefecture, Japan, has died after being refused treatment as many as 36 times at 25 different hospitals in an around the prefecture, Japanese website The Mainichi has revealed.