FDNY EMS Instructor Needled in Class
May 7, 2006 -- Ouch. A firefighter instructor who fumbled with a needle device meant to treat victims of chemical warfare agents like sarin gas accidentally injected himself in front of his class. But the worst sting was the widespread ribbing that followed the embarrassing mishap.
Bob Fasano of Ladder Co. 150 in Queens, an instructor at the FDNY's medical-training facility at Fort Totten, was teaching a class of firefighters last month when he jabbed himself in the thumb with the Mark 1 automatic injector, officials said.
Paramedics rushed Fasano out in a folding chair attached to an oxygen tank. He was taken to New York Hospital in Queens, where he was treated and released.
"He had absolutely no effects whatsoever," said J.P. Martin, the FDNY's chief of EMS training.
Luckily, he said, the drug atropine - meant for nerve-agent poisoning - had expired and lost its potency.
Martin said Fasano was demonstrating the "auto-injector," which has a trigger that automatically inoculates a patient stricken by sarin or other chemical agents. Ambulances carry dozens of doses in case of a terrorist attack. But Fasano apparently held the device upside down, so the sharp end was pointed toward his thumb; when he touched the trigger, it stuck him, Martin said.
Others familiar with the incident disputed Martin's account, saying Fasano was teaching a class on patient assessment - not chemical warfare - and was just fiddling with an injector left in the room.
"He wasn't showing it to anybody - he was fooling around, and it went off," a source said.
Fasano, through an FDNY spokesman, declined to comment.
Some colleagues were quick to jab Fasano with jokes in a mock bulletin with his photo, a drawing of the injector, and fabricated comments on "auto-injector safety."
It says: "I can personally state that this product works," and "I give it one thumb up!"
susan.edelman@nypost.com
