Saturday 17 January 2009

People are too be busy to be sick

Day shift: Five calls; all by ambulance.

Stats: 1 Asthma; 1 Hypoglycaemic; 1 Hyperventilating; 1 Chest pain; 1 DIB.

Another demonstration in London and another day of violence and aggression against innocent people and property but I will comment on that later…


I wasn’t required for the 4 year-old boy with asthma because the crew was on scene as I pulled up so I made my way back to the station for breakfast.


The local police station needed us later on and I visited a Polish man who was hypoglycaemic in his cell. He hadn’t eaten he claimed, and was now in need of sugar. This was being provided in the form of sugar-water by the police officers when I arrived, so he was already recovering. I checked his BM and it was on the up but not quite there yet, so we kept giving him drinks until a further check in the ambulance revealed that it was back to normal. He was being bailed anyway, so there was no need to cuff him for the trip (a precaution the police will routinely take unless we ask them not to for medical reasons).


Again, I wasn’t needed for the 29 year-old man who was hyperventilating. The crew was dealing with it and I would have been nothing but an observer.


Outside a cafĂ© in Central London a 67 year-old man with chest pain was given star treatment by me, a MRU and an ambulance crew. I left early in the proceedings – too many cooks and all that.


The day just seemed to be about my driving and nothing else because my last job required nothing of me but the ability to stop the clock before the 8-minute danger zone. A motorcycle paramedic was dealing with the 37 year-old asthmatic in the street. All I had to do was connect the neb and get her breathing properly.

Be safe.

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