Random Acts Of RealityBlog in the life of a London Ambulance EMTChanging Opinions- July 8, 2008 Drunk, but pleasant Lithy - chatting up the copper, sudden decrease in liking him after hearing about his repeated drunk driving convictions It's funny how your impression of people can change from one moment to the next. We were sent to usual job of 'Man hit over the head with a glass, cut to head' - we were directed to the rear of a chain pub. Standing there were two men, both worse the wear for drink. The police arrived just behind us, and a female police officer got out to take the...http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/7/3781404.html Dr Who- July 8, 2008 Why am I like Dr. Who I travel in a square vehicle with a flashing light on the top. I apparently travel in time - how else do you explain how quickly I get to a location The inside of our ambulance looks bigger than the outside. We arrive when chaos reigns, and leave having solved everyone's problems. We wear strange clothes and carry weird equipment with us. Our vehicles are held together with bodged equipment. Sometimes people die around us, sometimes due to violence. We come and go,...http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/7/3781395.html Warranted- July 7, 2008 We have been sent to a young man who has called us from a public phonebox, he has told our calltaker that he has been cutting his wrists. As a point of general safety the police are sent to this job as well as rather obviously he could well be armed with something sharp. We meet with the police who are also searching for the patient - they have already been up and down the street and can't find him so they declare 'area searched, no trace' and disappear off to do something else (it's been a..http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/7/3780038.html Frantic- July 4, 2008 A little while ago I received an email from Katherine Howell, an ex-ambulance officer from Australia . She's written a book and wondered if I'd be interested in reading it. While I don't have much time to read these days the idea behind the book sounded interesting, so I agreed. It's rare for me to try and finish a book in one sitting, I'm just too busy - but I must admit that I did find Frantic hard to put down. It tells the story of a paramedic with a troubled marriage. The story starts.http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/4/3748893.html Take Two Jesus' And Call Me In The Morning- July 2, 2008 Sometimes my atheism tends to distance myself from my patients. Take, for example, the woman who called for an ambulance because she had a sudden bout of severe belly ache. This had been going on for over an hour before she called and we'd been busy all day so it took us some time to get to her. We were met by the patient herself who didn't seem to be in any pain. I asked her what the problem was. "I had severe pain", she told me, "it was so bad I was curled up on the floor, I couldn't...http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/2/3771591.html |