Two paramedics who planned to market trading cards featuring photos of mangled corpses are in a fight to save their jobs.
Paul Schmidt and co-worker Todd Quilici have 3,000 nine-card packs of their "Cards of Death" ready to sell at $8.95 each.They insist they didn't take the photos on the job but their employer, American Medical Response, suspended the pair with pay on Feb. 14 and met with them on Monday to investigate.
"We are incensed," said company spokesman Chuck McFadden. "Paramedics are in the business of saving lives, not profiting from death."
The paramedics said they intended to do good with the cards, which carry messages about how deaths - from drunken driving to suicide - can be avoided. They say the photos were taken by an unidentified friend, do not reveal the identities of the victims and do not involve their employer.
"They say I'm some sort of unmoralistic scum bag," said Schmidt, 29. "I feel like my reputation is already ruined."
Quilici, 31, said he didn't mean any harm and that he's worried about losing his job.