It must be something in the air at this time of year. One of my recent shifts was like a groundhog day. It consisted almost entirely of patients who had either vomiting or diarrhoea or vomiting and diarrhoea. These were all otherwise healthy young people; all had a pair of legs in good working order…
Category Archives: NHS
Has Anyone Seen My Elephant?
It can be a bit hit and miss when you take an observer out for a shift on the ambulance. No self respecting observer arranges an observation shift with the London Ambulance Service hoping for a quite night on station drinking tea and watching Strictly Come X Factor on Ice; and of course we want…
I’m a firestarter
You know what it’s like when you have a new born baby to look after. You would do anything in your power to keep them safe from harm. One new mum took things a little bit far recently when she found a wasp’s nest in the family home. A scaremongering friend panicked our new mum…
Lisfranc fracture
Tom was brought in by a friend who wore a distinctly sheepish expression as he manoeuvred the wheel chair along the corridor. The patient had a particularly swollen and painful right foot; even I didn’t need an x-ray to tell me that something was amiss. “This chap ran over my foot” he said by way…
Filming incidents on mobile phones … Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
I was telling my friends and family about a call I went to recently. It involved a toddler hit by a car with possible life changing or life threatening injuries. My colleagues and I were busy – we had a child screaming with a head injury and the pain of numerous broken bones needing our…
The consequences of poor access to healthcare
I saw a 25 year old man recently in an Urgent Care Centre where I work; he was in an awful state with an infected wound to his hand. Just over two weeks earlier he had a nasty accident which involved white spirit and a lit cigarette. He sustained terrible, full thickness burns to his…
Breaking sad news to children
One of the toughest tasks that I’ve ever had to do at work didn’t involve any blood or trauma, but it left me choking back the tears just the same. We had been called to a young mother found by her husband when he arrived home after work, as he entered the living room he…
Cat’s Whispers
Things aren’t always what they seem at first. When people are describing what has happened to them when they call 999 for help, it can be open to interpretation and even a small breakdown in communication can mean we find something completely different to what we were expecting when we arrive. Language barriers, third party…
Shoulder Dislocation
When it comes to dislocation of the shoulder, rapid treatment is best to eliminate the stretch and compression of nerves and muscles in the area; it also reduces the muscle spasm which can make getting the shoulder back in to the correct position more of a challenge if left for greater lengths of time. Not…
Child Bereavement – and having to deal with everything else
Some people just seem to have the worst luck. I was given a call to a road traffic collision (RTC) and the control room asked me to provide a report for HEMS. The initial calls to 999 must have made it sound very serious if they were considering sending the helicopter out. As I pulled…
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