Bearing in mind that the emergency services were stretched to capacity during the snowy period due to the high call rate coupled with the fact that many staff were unable to get in to work, you would imagine that people would exercise a degree of caution and put some thought into calling 999. However, we…
Tag Archive: illness
A day in September
My last shift before my holiday was comprised of a diverse bunch of calls and here are some of them; Firstly there was the 45 yr old lady found dead on her kitchen floor. Not seen for days; found by a neighbour who held a key. The police were on scene too and we suspect…
Mental Health and Violence
From BBC News: Bipolar disorder ‘not to blame for violent behaviour’ People with a severe mental illness are no more likely to be violent than anyone else – unless they abuse drugs or alcohol, a study has suggested. [source] I read this article with interest because it reminded me of when, some years ago as…
Do Not Resuscitate
Anyone who has worked for the ambulance service for even the shortest period of time will have experienced the following situation. Someone with a serious medical condition unexpectedly deteriorates and a panicked family call 999 to summon ambulance staff to resuscitate their loved one. Recently I had one such call. An elderly lady had been…
Ignored Advice
Like many of my colleagues who work in a range of health care roles, I have got used to and don’t usually mind, being asked for medical advice by family, friends or occasionally even relative strangers when off duty. We get used to the unexpected knocks on the front door or approaches at social events….
Ketamine
Early in my shift I was sent to a young man who was complaining of feeling faint. When I arrived at the grotty estate I took a glance at the seedy block of flats with its boarded-up windows and was rather wary about going in. I called up our control room and asked if they…
Collapsed Behind Locked Doors (CBLD)
In the evening of one of the beautiful warm days that we have had lately (which also happened to be my birthday!) I had an observer called Jenny out in the car with me. We were called to a ‘collapse behind locked doors’. This is quite a common call for us. Sometimes a concerned relative…
Virgin London Marathon 2010
It seemed to come around very quickly – that time of year when London hosts the Marathon. A few quick stats: 36,000+ Runners 6685 Casualties treated (6515 runners; 170 spectators) – 47 requiring hospitalisation 1400 Medical, Nursing, Ambulance and St John Ambulance staff and volunteers 50 dedicated ambulances 30 cycle response teams [source] It was…
Chemical Incident
I had a strange one a few shifts ago. I was called to a house along with the HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) team to a young man who believed he had been the victim of a chemical incident. He had received a package that was ordered from a mail order company by post which…
Why oh why won’t people take medication for their pain?
Any ideas why people don’t take painkillers when they are in pain? It drives me absolutely crazy how someone can think something is serious enough to call an ambulance or visit an Accident and Emergency department without doing the slightest thing to help the situation for themselves first. Obviously I am not suggesting that when…
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