These On-Call EMTs Picked White Castle At The Worst Imaginable Time

Some people may say food is life, but most people wouldn’t actually put their food over someone else’s safety. Right? Not according to one EMT whose mozzarella sticks were apparently more important than potentially life threatening situations.

James Hovan, a New Jersey EMT and his partner have been accused of ignoring emergency calls while waiting to get their food at White Castle. The pair was caught because they were documenting their shift using Periscope, a mobile livestreaming app, which the pair was using at the time. The Periscope video can be seen on News12.

On the livestream Hovan and his partner appear to be disregarding a call in order to wait for food. The pair did respond to a second call about a woman struggling to breathe, but only after getting their food.  They also continue to mock the woman’s condition even as they respond to the call.  The woman was reportedly struggling to breathe leading to comments from the EMTs like “I’m struggling to eat my [expletive] mozzarella sticks.”

At least one viewer of the livestream reportedly asked why the pair didn’t immediately react to the call. Hovan’s response was too mock the question saying, “What are we doing?  Waiting for our food.  Didn’t I get a call, yeah, but I was in the middle of ordering waiting for my food. Can’t just drive off… I ordered my food before the call came in. What do you think, I just throw it up in the air and run off? No.”

He also responded to viewers by saying he bet his paycheck that the call is a “taxi ride,” which refers to someone faking an emergency situation in order to get hospital transportation for non life threatening situations.

According to University Hospital where the EMTs worked, the pair was placed on suspension without pay. Both EMTs later resigned.