I saw a lovely patient this week, he was a very shy young man who didn’t speak much English but sadly he had just been mugged. There were three of them and only one of him – so violence really wasn’t necessary, but still they punched him in the face a number of times as…
Tag Archive: Ambulance
Don’t point that thing at me!
I don’t know if I believe in karma but it certainly seemed to come in to play with my patient last week. Although he was seen fairly promptly and spoken to politely, he was an impatient and somewhat objectionable man from the moment we made contact. As he told me the story of how he…
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…
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…
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…
Notting Hill Carnival 2011
I’d put my name down to work at the Notting Hill Carnival a few weeks ago, well before the London riots hit the news. I usually enjoy working at these big events (you may know that I have also worked at the London Triathlon, the London Marathon and in the centre of town on New…
Lower leg pain
I had to feel sorry for one of my patients last week. She’d been sent in to the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) for an x-ray to her right leg by her GP. Sadly at the beginning of the year, she had lost a close relative under tragic circumstances and was still feeling very low in…
Verona Opera
I was back in Italy last week with my friends Carol & Jaqui, and on our first night there we were enchanted as we watched a spectacular performance of Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ in Verona’s majestic 2,000 year old Roman amphitheatre. Under the inky blue night sky, only the occasional breeze gently reminded us that we…
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