Thursday 15 March 2007

Hit and run

I spoke too soon. The end of the shift was looming and I was at the station when my phone went. I had a call on my MDT in the car. I wandered out and found the MDT shut down (low power does that). I re-booted the system, which takes forever, and called Control to let them know I wasn't yet rolling to the job because I had no details.

The system restarted as I moved off and it was a call to a RTC at a normally very busy road in Central London, although at this time of the day the rush hour would be getting off to a slow start. The call details also stated "vehicle vs ped. - ?inj"; nothing could be further from the truth.

I arrived at the top of the road in question and found it cordoned by the police. This meant that it was a serious incident, not the 'possibly drunk and has no injuries after bumping lightly into a parked vehicle' that I thought it was going to be. I continued down the road until I got to the scene. There was an ambulance in attendance but I couldn't see the crew or the casualty. Two buses were blocking my access to the area and the bus drivers, who were parked side by side across the entire road, were having a conversation and not paying any attention to my flashing blue lights or my cold stare. I sounded my siren and they looked. A police officer waved one of the buses out of my way and I proceeded around the wrong side of the road to the accident scene.

I parked up and glanced over my shoulder at the road behind me. One of my colleagues was attending to a casualty on the ground. Then I realised what I was seeing. A young woman, in her early twenties, lay in the middle of the road with a large pool of blood around her. She was stripped of her clothing, which was blood-soaked and my colleague was at her head, his crew mate rushing to the ambulance for equipment.

I got out and ran over to them. She was in serious trouble. She had a massive obvious head injury. She lay there and her legs and arms moved in a grotesque slow-motion mime for help. I have no idea whether she understood what was happening to her or not, all I know is that she squeezed my hand once when I spoke to her but didn't respond like that again afterwards.

Someone had hit her hard and had left the scene. A coward with a car as a weapon had wiped this young girl's future out in a split second and didn't have the guts to stay and help her. Nobody witnessed this apparently and she must have been lying in the middle of that road for God knows how long, with the entire left side of her face obliterated and her life bleeding onto the street, until somebody saw her and called for help.

All her personal belongings were strewn around her and we worked frantically on her to keep her alive. Another FRU arrived and the four of us gathered her up in the scoop and got her into the ambulance. I had called for a Delta Alpha (emergency doctor) to attend but it was going to take too long. If this had happened a few hours later, she would have had the benefit of the Helicopter team (HEMS) but she had us and we weren't waiting.

In the ambulance fluids were given and, as well as her more obvious injuries, a left side pneumothorax was identified. An attempt was made to de-compress but it was too difficult to deal with immediately, so it was decompressed successfully at hospital - we use a large bore needle, inserted into the chest to get the air out of the chest cavity - this allows the lung to re-inflate and is a potentially life-saving technique.

She was fighting for her life and continued to breathe, albeit agonally, until she got to hospital. There she was put to sleep and intubated (RSI) so that her breathing could be managed properly. This is what we needed done on scene but there was no time to wait. When I left she was still being worked on and I have no idea whether she will survive. If I was to be honest, I expected her to be dead on scene when I saw the extent of her head injury but miraculously she stayed alive and hung on until she could get the best possible chance of survival at hospital. I will find out what happens to this young woman for you and report back.

My FRU colleague gave me a lift back to the scene (my car was left there whilst I worked with the other paramedic in the ambulance) and I looked at the mess that was left behind. The entire street was cordoned off and no doubt there will be traffic chaos right about now as I'm writing this but I don't care. I am angry that I have, yet again, witnessed the lowest form of human cowardice.

If you are a young driver (especially if you are male), let me tell you something - you can't really drive. You think you can and you will convince yourself that you are the world's best driver but you need years behind the wheel - decades - and you need further training to become a good driver. I don't mean a good fast driver, I'm talking about seeing whilst driving. Ambulance professionals receive weeks of intense training to be able to drive the way we do and a lot of it involves forward thinking and really seeing what is going on as you approach at speed. Even then it is possible to make a stupid mistake. Possible but much less likely. Please don't drive away from the scene of any accident you may cause. Please face the music and help anyone you may have hurt. A world of pain is left behind for everyone involved when you hit and run.

If I find out the driver of the vehicle that destroyed this young woman's life was on a mobile phone I will string him up myself.

I had a lot of other things to say about other jobs tonight but it all seems pale and irrelevant at the moment. I'll catch up later. I'm going to sleep now.

Be safe.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6453185.stm

Sounds pretty tough. Well done though. Times like this it is pretty clear what an invaluable job you do.

Anonymous said...

Wow. That must have been unbelievably difficult to have to deal with, especially with it being a hit and run.

I'm a young driver, and although I've been driving for nearly two years and done 25k miles, I know I'm not really very experienced. What I do know, however, is that even if I know I'll be in deep, DEEP trouble if I hit someone, I could never just leave the scene. I'd have to try and help them, there's no way I could leave them suffering.

I really hope the woman survives, and that the police find the scumbag that did this to her. Hope you're OK.

Anonymous said...

I dont think I've ever commented before but I do read.

My grandmother was killed by hit and run in 1996. The person was caught by pure luck - a witness was off-duty policeman.

They tried everything to help her but she had traumatic head injury (not going into detail as I know you'll understand). She had been thrown over 75ft by the car which had run a red light and was travelling at approx 60mph in a 40 zone.

The person who did it was drunk. It was 2.30 in the afternoon and she'd just picked her two young kids up from school. Its those kids I feel for because they saw it all and I know for a fact that there was evidence on the car. Again, I'll say no more than that.

It was devestating for my family. I was 16 at the time and had to live with the fact that this woman had killed my grandma outright, stopped then driven away. Which was her downfall cos the policeman noted her number and she was then met and arrested at her house where the police went and waited for her. I feel nothing but pure rage and hatred for her.

Your note about young drivers is something I advocate. After the initial shock of the accident I vowed that the one thing I'd do on my grandma's behalf was to go and see her body, which I did and it was awful. I then promised her, while holding her hand, that I was going to make sure I would tell any learner driver I came across that if they were ever cocky enough to think they are experts to go to a mortuary and view the devestation left behind.

My sister-in-law passed her test almost a year ago and before she took her first lesson I sat down and told her this story. It shocked her and it scared her. But it made her appreciate the dangers.

Thank you for writing this. I hope everyone who reads it takes heed.

Rosie

Anonymous said...

how anyone can drive away from an accident like that, i will never know. What i think is worse is the other car and cyclist who went past her and didn't stop!

people are sometimes so disappointing...

Xf said...

Rosie

I'm sorry to hear of your family history regarding hit and run. I don't think what I have said will make much difference but you are right about showing these people the consequences of their actions. I think they do something similar in the States. It's about time we had a no-nonsense approach to punishment for this crime.

Anonymous said...

Xf,

Barely know what to say, so sad, so tragic and so needless. This poor lass and her family will be in my prayers tonight, as will you and all who have cared for her. Rosie my thoughts and prayers are with you too.

Lucy

Anonymous said...

Thanks. Every time I get in the car I think of her.

It might not make much difference what we say, but if it gets through to just one person, then surely, we have to keep repeating the message.

Rosie