{"id":59849,"date":"2025-12-11T18:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59849"},"modified":"2025-12-11T18:26:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:26:54","slug":"this-just-shouldnt-be-ok-father-of-polk-paramedic-injured-in-ambulance-crash-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/11\/this-just-shouldnt-be-ok-father-of-polk-paramedic-injured-in-ambulance-crash-speaks-out\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This just shouldn\u2019t be OK\u2019: Father of Polk paramedic injured in ambulance crash speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A first responder and his patient remained in critical condition Wednesday night following a crash between the ambulance and a pickup truck, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Parris, 32, has undergone multiple emergency surgeries, is still unconscious, and is suffering from numerous broken bones alongside a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cHe\u2019s slowly progressing. He\u2019s not out of the woods, and every little step he\u2019s making is a victory. It\u2019s just\u2026 he shouldn\u2019t be in there,\u201d said Dave Parris, John\u2019s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Parris, a father of two young children, joined Polk County Fire Rescue in 2019 and, in recent years, became a paramedic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe enjoys working. He\u2019s a charismatic individual,\u201d said Chief Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parris was in the back of an ambulance, taking care of an 85-year-old patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Parris\u2019 ambulance was operating appropriately, flashing lights and sirens, when it was hit at the intersection of U.S. 27 and Lucerne Park Road in Haines City around 8 p.m. Monday, according to the sheriff\u2019s office. The paramedic was attempting to provide care to an 85-year-old patient on their way to an area hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou look at the destruction, and there\u2019s nothing left of the truck. There\u2019s nothing left of this ambulance. I hope he doesn\u2019t get a slap on the wrist,\u201d said Dave Parris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both drivers (the truck and ambulance) are expected to be OK. The sheriff\u2019s office has not provided an update on John Parris\u2019 patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking for blood. I\u2019m not looking for revenge. I\u2019m looking for justice. This just shouldn\u2019t be OK,\u201d said Dave Parris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A first responder and his patient remained in critical condition Wednesday night following a crash between the ambulance and a pickup truck, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office. John… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNS0xMi0xMVQxODI1MzQuNjYzLndlYnA_Zml0PTI1MiUyQzEyMiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ilx1MjAxOFRoaXMganVzdCBzaG91bGRuXHUyMDE5dCBiZSBPS1x1MjAxOTogRmF0aGVyIG9mIFBvbGsgcGFyYW1lZGljIGluanVyZWQgaW4gYW1idWxhbmNlIGNyYXNoIHNwZWFrcyBvdXQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.roQi_U7B4I5m_mRYMu9NZAW080r-_VQLy5RLVg5W84MMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59851,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-11T182534.663.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[12834],"class_list":["post-59849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-this-just-shouldnt-be-ok-father-of-polk-paramedic-injured-in-ambulance-crash-speaks-out"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59852,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59849\/revisions\/59852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}