By Rory Reynolds

A PARAMEDIC who was among the first to treat tragic Motherwell FC legend Phil O’Donnell on the day he collapsed and died has avoided being struck-off despite refusing to respond to emergency calls.

William Munro faced being banned from work after he refused to respond to separate mercy pleas from two OAPs in April 2006.

He said that he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after twice being confronted by blade wielding patients who he was trying to help – including one with a Samurai – and was “anxious” at responding to calls while on a single-man shift.

Following the refusal Munro was suspended by the Scottish Ambulance Service before he joined a private paramedic firm that attends sporting events – including the tragic match which saw the former Celtic idol pass-away.

A letter from Motherwell FC produced on his behalf described Munro, from Glasgow, as “an excellent paramedic” who excelled in his duty.

He escaped a tribunal of the Health Professions Council with a two-year caution despite being found guilty of misconduct after considerable deliberation by the panel.

Although the council’s competence committee said that Munro’s “reckless” behaviour “fell well below what is expected of a paramedic” they found that he was fit to continue in his job.

The result comes following two days of evidence at a hearing in Edinburgh.

Panel Chair Raymond Pattison said: “Having considered the report it is accepted that Munro was displaying PTSD at the time of the incident.

“Munro displayed reckless behaviour and fell well below what is expected of a registered paramedic.

“The allegation is well founded and Munro is impaired in his practice, however this was an isolated incident in an otherwise unblemished career.

“Munro has shown great insight into his condition and has sought medical advice. The panel has concluded that there is very low risk and has cautioned him for two years.”

Representing Munro Alex McLuckie said: “I’m pleased that the committee has accepted that Munro was suffering from PTSD and we are also pleased that there are no questions over his competence at work.

“The incident was restricted to one shift on one day in a seven-year career as a paramedic.

“I think in terms of a result we are pleased the committee recognised that Munro was suffering from a stress related illness after two violent incidents at work.

“These are the kinds of incidents that brave ambulance personnel can come across in the course of carrying out their duties and we are pleased that the panel has allowed Munro to continue in his work as a professional paramedic.”

Munro had refused to attend two calls involving elderly patients while on duty on April 24, 2006.

The first involved an 82-year-old woman who was experiencing breathing difficulties while the other plea for help was from a 70-year-old man with chest pains.

In both cases, Munro’s refusal cost the patients valuable minutes before emergency operators were able to find replacement medics.

Munro said that being twice confronted by blade wielding thugs while on jobs had left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

On that day his crew partner had called in sick, leaving him to operate the ambulance on his own.

Unaware of his situation the emergency dispatch operators tried to get his vehicle to attend to the two calls.

Paramedics are required to respond single manned to an emergency call if there is no indication of violence or alcohol. The hearing was told both incidences met those criteria.

But Munro claims he refused the calls because he was “anxious” about attending them on his own after being confronted by a mental health patient brandishing a knife, a hammer and a Samurai sword in October 2005.

And, he said, six months later he and his partner were challenged by another man carrying a knife.

Both paramedics at the time were forced to seek shelter in their ambulance and call police for assistance.

Phil O’Donnell was just 35-years-old when he fell to the ground towards the end of his side’s match against Dundee Utd in December 2007.

With the Lanarkshire side leading the game 5-3, he was about to be substituted for team mate Marc Fitzpatrick when he collapsed on the Fir Park pitch.

Paramedics and club doctors worked on him for at least five minutes on the field before carrying him on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

But O’Donnell, who earned one cap for Scotland, died on his way to Wishaw General Hospital despite attempts to resuscitate him.

A post mortem later revealed he had suffered a left ventricular failure of the heart.

Belki de o anda kalbi durup gözlerini kapadığında hayatta ki tek gerçeğin hayaller olduğunu hepimizden daha iyi anladı...

2007′ nin son maçıydı. Motherwell-Dundee United karşılaşmasında oyundan çıkmaya hazırlanırken bir anda hayata gözlerini yuman iskoç efsanesi  Phil O’Donnell’ ı o anda tribünde bulunan dört çocuğu da izlemekteydi.
O maç,kendisinin  futbol dünyasında bir daha ölmemek üzere yeniden doğuşu oldu…

Motherwell kaptanı Phil O’Donnell, takımının 5-3 kazandığı ve takım arkadası olan yeğeni David Clarkson’ın, öz be öz dayısından aldığı paslarla iki gol attığı maçın yetmiş sekizinci dakikasında oyundan çıkmaya hazırlanıyordu.
Takımı için elinden gelen çabayı sahaya yanısıtan otuzbeş’lik yıldızı alkışlayan seyircilerin ona vermiş olduğu huzur ap ayrı bir zevkti…
Kendisi de o’nu alkışlayan seyircilere aynı şekilde karşılık vererek saha kenarına yavaş adımlarla geldiğinde  hayattan daha önemli olan futbol dünyası gözlerinin önünden geçti. her ölüm erken ölümdü, bunun farkındaydı…

F*ckin’ yass man!!  The Mighty ‘Well make another (probably ill-fated) assault on Europe.  Come hell or highwater, I sooooo desperately want to go to the away leg.  Unless it’s in the Faroe Islands or something, I’m not completely cracked. 

For a club that’s had the problems we’ve had these past few years, staying afloat has been a bloody miracle.  It’s full credit to Mark McGhee for pulling this off, and at the risk of schmaltz it’s a damn fine tribute to the much-missed Phil O’Donnell.  It’s just a shame our new strip is baw-bag ugly, since I’ll probably have to shell out for one (my four old ones are a tad, ahem, cosy).  I’m just glad that out town name is our team name, that way best to avoid “They’ll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight” such nonsense from commentators who barely know of our existence!  I wonder what the Spanish/German/Lithuanian for “get it right up yeez” is?  Answers on a postcard please.

The euphoria of reaching the UEFA Cup final still sits amongst Rangers fans, but Sunday’s scoreless draw with Hibernian at Easter Road may be the first sign that their team are beginning to stumble as they hurtle toward the finishing line.

They are a team totally knackered after a marathon European campaign, which began with a Champions League qualifier with Zeta in July resulting in a UEFA Cup final with Zenit St Petersberg on Wednesday week.

Walter Smith has been busy slamming the SPL in his spare time for not helping Rangers prepare for their biggest game since the 1972 European Cup Winners Cup win. A heavy fixture backlog will eventually see Rangers play 4 games in 8 days following the Manchester showdown.

The congestion has been caused by a number of factors, such as sodden unplayable pitches, dreadful Scottish weather and the untimely death of Motherwell captain Phil O’Donnell.

So Smith wants the league season extended. While I agree that the situation is far from ideal, I don’t see what more the league can do. A season extension would be a struggle, mainly due to the start of the European Championships in June and the fact the Scottish Cup final is on May 24. As Queen of the South boss Gordon Chisholm rightly says, you can’t move the showpiece of our game. Queens season finished on April 26 at Dunfermline and they wouldn’t be too happy at having to wait even longer for their big day at Hampden.

Indeed, Smith also forgets that the SPL agreed to let Rangers postpone an SPL match at home to Gretna on the Saturday before Lyon sent them crashing out of the Champions League in a bid to help them.

Smith’s talk of the SPL and SFA conspiring to help Celtic more than his team is absolute nonsense. The fact that his UEFA Cup opponents have had games re-arranged prior to the final is irrelevent- they have just entered their season, while we are at the end of ours.

Its been a difficult season with regards the weather, pitch condition and tragedy all wreaking havoc with fixtures. As a Dunfermline fan, I remember in our First Division title campaign of 1995/1996 we had to play 6 games in 18 days and had to cope with the death of our skipper Norrie McCathie, injuries, suspensions and a car crash involving 2 of our players. We had the next game after our captain’s death postponed before we defeated Clydebank 4-3. Games were cancelled due to the weather, but we didn’t have any choice but to cram fixtures in. We responded in the right way and went on to win the title on the final day of the season.

It is unfortunate, but Rangers will simply have to get on with it. They boasted earlier in the season that they had a big enough squad to field 2 teams- now’s their chance to prove that theory.

So soon after the tragic and untimely death of Motherwell captain Phil O’Donnell, the last thing Scottish sport needed was another tragedy in quick succession.

The death of cycling champion Jason MacIntyre in a car crash marks yet another black day for Scottish sport. The BBC report can be read here.

For a country with so few genuine sporting heroes we can ill afford to lose the ones that we do have.

Although I can’t claim to be an avid follower of cycling – other than during the Olympics when even synchronised swimming becomes a must watch – it would seem that MacIntyre possessed some considerable talent and represented an outside medal chance at the Olympics this year and the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Away from the sport MacIntyre, like O’Donnell, leaves behind a wife and kids – Caroline and eight-year old twin girls. Of course, the loss to Scottish sport pales into insignificance when compared to the loss experienced by his family.

During my time as a news reporter I was no stranger to dealing with tragedy on a regular basis and it never ceased to amaze me how people are able to cope with such grief. Unfortunately some people never get over the loss, outlined in another tragic story in today’s Scotsman where mother Moira Vivian found herself unable to cope with the suicide of her daughter and ended up taking her own life.

I can only hope that MacIntyre’s family receive the support that it seems Mrs Vivian wasn’t privvy to and that they are able to move on from this loss.

Wouldn’t it be a good gesture if sports minister Stewart Maxwell’s newly reformed sportscotland saw fit to support the MacIntyre family, both emotionally and financially, in their hour of need.

I will wait with baited breath to see if that happens but it seems that at the moment they are content simply to say that their thoughts are with his family – here.

In the meantime I will simply join them in offering condolences to the MacIntyre’s.

This morning I was in Dunfermline leading worship on Epiphany Sunday, the day when we think about the wise men who journeyed to meet the Christ child.  It was communion and I used a mixture of bits and pieces nicked from all kinds of places but it felt like a really coherent service.  It even had a U2 related sermon which is always fun, well for me anyway.  I still haven’t found what I’m looking for was today’s song.  It seemed to me to fit well with those ‘wise’ men who went looking for the king in a palace in Jerusalem and found him in a house in Bethlehem instead.

Tonight was our latest http://togethermct.ning.com.  We walked with the mise men, following the star to Bethlehem.  We put together a labyrinth, complete with MP3 meditations and a star which moved across the sky (look closely at the left hand curtain)!  I think we are starting to see a little group of regulars and I’m very hopeful for the future of our worship experiment.

Friday saw a journey of a different kind.  We live across the road from the church where Phil O’Donnell’s funeral mass was held so i spent most of Friday morning standing at our front window watching footballers going into church and listening to the service relayed outside on speakers.  It was a beautiful service and Phil’s team mate Chris McCart gave a moving tribute to ‘Uncle’ Phil.

Scottish football had a tragic end to a good year. Phil O’Donnell’s death on 29 December was a crushing loss to all concerned. A fine example to Scottish football has left us and he will be sadly missed.

Now, more than ever, the SFA need to consider the appointment of new Scotland coach. Such tragedy is a further reason for the Scotland team to be released from the uncertainty of who will lead them to further victories, qualification for World Cup 2010 and beyond. Walter Smith and Alex McLeish did some fine work. Similarly, the Scotland squad have worked hard producing some outstanding results. For this reason they are all well worthy of our (and the SFA’s) support, and to be left without leadership or direction is doing them a disservice.

The SFA chose well twice before, but I hope they don’t take too long to appoint the next Scotland coach. I expect good things, but wish they would hurry up.

Suggested candidates for Scotland coach include:
1, 2: Mark McGhee and Craig Levein – as suggested by Barry Ferguson and many others
3. Tommy Burns – previously Scotland assistant coach under Walter Smith
4. John Collins – a favourite, but also likely to be approached by Fulham
5. Graeme Souness – the man who turned Rangers around and wasn’t afraid to sign catholics to play at Ibrox
6. Kevin Keegan – Betfair’s idea of a joke???

I hope it’ll be McGhee, Levien or Souness. They all exude passion and determination and have fine records, showing they would do the Scotland team proud.

The year ended on a sour note for Manchester United, who lost their last game of 2007, and their lead in the Premiership. The league champions opened their New Year campaign against struggling Birmingham. A substantial win was anticipated. But all did not go according to plan…

It had been a sad end to the year. There had been an unexpected loss to West Ham United. There had been adverse headlines also about a bawdy off-piste party organized and attended by the players. One first-team starlet was arrested and charged with rape. A furious Ferguson had imposed a ban of silence over the affair, and serious fines on all the players involved.

Commentators and fans were suggesting that Sir Alex was losing his touch as a manager, in failing to appreciate the team’s urgent need for a world-class striker. Ferguson insisted otherwise. As mostly happened over his illustrious career, he had been able to prove his critics wrong, and the team steadily climbed the table, and re-established itself as favourites to regain the title.

As the season developed, normal goal-scoring was resumed. Meanwhile, leadership problems at Chelsea and Liverpool were contributing to the declining chances of two of the four most likely winners of the league. Only Arsenal was seen as a serious threat. Arsene Wenger had assembled another team of brilliant ball-players, whose progress was only likely to be halted by the inexperience of its young stars.

So the New Year dawned

January 1st 2008. A season-ticket holder faced up to one of life’s existential dilemmas and had abandoned the path well-travelled to Old Trafford, in favour of domestic doings fixing a newly-acquired home walking distance to the ground. Through such decisions pseuds like myself gain access to the Theatre of Dreams.

The Game

The game was low key. The players were low key. The crowd was low key. The manager growled afterwards that the atmosphere was like a funeral. His mood was hardly helped by the sentence he was serving, a ban from the touchline for an outburst against some hapless official after an earlier game.

For the record, like every match in the land, this one started with a minute of remembrance of Motherwell’s Phil O’Donnell who had collapsed and died in a match the previous Saturday.

It was New Year’s Day at Old Trafford

It was New Year’s Day at Old Trafford
when Birmingham came to town.
The Onions were draped around Burghers.
And Sir Matt looked down

Down upon chestnut clad horses
drawn from a dark Chorlton shed
protected from fetlocks to dreadlocks.
And Sir Matt stared ahead

Ahead to the day’s performance
A storm in a desert cup
when the faithful outnumber the Godless.
And Sir Matt looked up

Up to the Lego land scaffold.
where privileged people had gone
to cling with Prawns to coat tails.
And Sir Matt looked on

On as the multitude gathered
And remembered a son who had died.
Then we watched as the players stumbled.
And Sir Matt cried.

Phil O’Donnell, Motherwell FC’s captain, died on Saturday aged just 35.  ‘Uncle’ Phil collapsed during the game against Dundee Utd and died later in hospital.  Phil was part of the Motherwell team that won the Scottish Cup in 1991 and I’ll never forget his goal.  A great player and a good man, he will be sadly missed.

35 year old Motherwell midfielder Phil O’Donnell died after collapsing on the field during Motherwell’s victory against Dundee United.

Ian from the Offside has more on the story here.

It’s tragic that another player has fallen on the field.    In September, Sevilla’s Antonio Puerta died after collapsing on the field, regaining conciousness, then collapsing again in the locker room.  It is a scary thought that players can have conditions causing their death even though they are in such good shape.  Unfortunately much of the time, the fact that a player is in such good shape clouds the ability for doctors to find any flaws in their health.

I know everyone at CHI mourns the loss of Phil O’Donnell and gives condolences to his family and teammates.