In my long career as a paramedic, I believe I experienced first hand the worst thing a woman can do to a man. We were once called to the local state prison to transport a man to the hospital who was having chest pain. Other than that, he was pretty stable so it was a quiet 30 minute transport to the closest emergency room. We didn’t usually talk to the prisoners during transport, but somehow we started chatting and I asked the guy what he was “in” for. He tells me he was sentenced to prison for something like 20 years for molesting both of his daughters. I was repulsed. I just wanted this scumbag out of my ambulance immediately I was so disgusted. But then he immediately starts telling me how it was all a setup by his ex-wife and how he’s really innocent and nobody will believe him. He’s on his second attorney to try to get a new trial and he’s hoping somebody will finally grant him a new opportunity to clear his name. The prison guard riding in the back of the ambulance with us (he was sitting behind the patient) looks at me and rolls his eyes and smirks and says to me, “they all say that. Don’t listen to his bullshit. He’s been telling that to everyone who will listen.” The prisoner looks at me for some sort of sympathy but I just sternly look down at my patient report and tell him to lay back and rest and stop talking. He started sobbing and cried, “even the paramedic that’s supposed to be saving my life hates me!” I certainly felt no sympathy for the guy at the time. I had passed judgement on him, as had the prison guard, and decided this guy was a disgusting pedophile and I’d just as soon not have to deal with him at all. Just touching him to check his blood pressure made my skin crawl.
It was something like nearly 2 years later when I happened upon a newspaper article in our local paper about a guy who’d been in the local prison for several years for child molestation. He’d eventually been granted a new trial and at some point during that second trial, both of his daughters admitted that they’d been made to create this false story against their dad at the behest of his ex-wife, who wanted to punish him for the divorce. His sentence was ultimately vacated and he was released from prison. Not sure what ever happened to the ex-wife, but I know the prosecutor said they’d be exploring charges against her.
I didn’t recognize the name of the prisoner in the article, but I immediately recognized his face when I saw a photo of him in court, weeping when the judge ordered him released. He was the same prisoner I’d transported 2 years before and had treated like crap. The guilt I felt at that moment was overwhelming. I wanted to find a way to contact him to apologize (if he’d even remember me). I wonder to this day whether he was ever able to repair his relationship with his kids, or whether he was ever able to repair his life. The guy spent something like 7 years in prison based on a bullshit charge that his ex-wife put their young kids up to. It’s a horrific thought and it still haunts me to this day.
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