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…
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Tags: 999, Ambulance, attacked, broken jaw, good samaritan, injury, max fax, mobile phone, mugging, Paramedic, Police, violence, wider NHS -
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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…
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Tags: 999, accident, Ambulance, finger, fracture, hand, injury, karma, road rage, rudeness, urgent care centre -
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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…
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Tags: accident, common sense, diarrhoea, GP (General Practitioner), Head Injury, Hospital, illness, injury, minor illness, NICE guidance, Paramedic, Trends, urgent care centre, vomiting, wider NHS -
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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…
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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…
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Tags: accident, air ambulance, Ambulance, car crash TV, children, common sense, HEMS, injury, mobile phone cameras, Paramedic, Police, RTC, television and the media, Trauma, Trends -
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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…
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Tags: access to healthcare, burn, Burns Unit, hand injury, health inequalities, homeless, infected wound, injury, necrosis, no fixed abode, urgent care centre, wound -
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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…
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Tags: 999, accident, Ambulance, circular saw injury, communication, foot injury, funny, IKEA, injury, leg injury, levitation, lucky escapes, Paramedic, Trauma, unexpected, weird things patients say -
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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…
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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…
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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…
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