Virginia EMT On Unpaid Leave After Comparing Black Patients To Gorillas

A Virginia emergency medical technician is on unpaid leave for cruel, racist comments he made on a white supremacist podcast, including claims that he had “immense satisfaction” after he “terrorized” a Black child with a needle.

According to CNN, Alex McNabb, who works part-time as an EMT in Patrick County, Va., is a regular on “The Daily Shoah” (a name that mocks the Holocaust), the white supremacist podcast where he made the horrifying comments.

McNabb later tried to claim on Twitter that his remarks were a “work of fiction,” but the deed was done, and he sparked outrage across the nation and raised questions as to whether he would be able to care for minority and Jewish patients, the network reports. He claimed that he was going through a “character assassination attempt.”

In a November podcast, he had insisted that he didn’t treat any patients based on their religious, ethnic or sexual identities because “it’s a professional duty,” per a Huffington Post report. 

“You have a f–king duty, to go out there and give 100 percent on every single call. It doesn’t matter what race or color or what situation it is,” he said.

Nonetheless, using the name “Dr. Narcan” McNabb repeatedly called Black people “dindus” – combining the word “didn’t” and “do” to reference Black people who complain about their mistreatment in the criminal justice system. He also compared Black people to gorillas and spoke of terrorizing “an unruly, young African American male child” who needed to have blood drawn.

The report notes:

In one podcast from October 4, 2016, first reported by the Huffington Post, McNabb tells of an emergency call to what he characterized as a Black apartment complex that medics call “Ebola Alley.” Using the Dr. Narcan persona, he refers to a black woman as a “dinduisha” and called her a shaved “Harambe,” the name of a famous gorilla.

Later in the same podcast, Dr. Narcan referenced the story of the child quipping, “So, guess who volunteered to take (his) blood?”

“Dr. Narcan enjoyed great, immense satisfaction as he terrorized this youngster with a needle and stabbed him thusly in the arm with a large-gauge IV catheter,” he added.

The Virginia Department of Health has opened an investigation into McNabb after receiving a complaint last month, a spokesperson noted.

“This individual should never be involved in patient care at any level,” Lock Boyce, the board of supervisors’ chairman of Patrick County said. “Not as a physician, a nurse, an EMT. Not anywhere.” The rural, overwhelmingly white county in the Blue Ridge Mountains has a contract with McNabb’s employers.

McNabb’s employer, JEB Stuart Volunteer Rescue Squad told CNN that they will be cooperating with the state in the investigation.

“I’ve cautioned against firing him outright yet because we don’t want to be sued for wrongful termination,” JEB Stuart’s attorney Wren Williams acknowledged.

What will become of McNabb will ultimately be left up to the board of JEB Stuart, which decided to put McNabb on unpaid leave pending the completion of the state’s investigation.

However, according to Williams, there has so far been no evidence that McNabb mistreated anyone.

Still, there are those that are truly concerned about McNabb’s claims, considering his job often stands between life and death for many people.