New Years Eve 2007

Firstly, I want to attribute this post to Tom Reynolds over at Random Acts of Reality, who is currently off work due to ligament damage to his right knee, and who has provided a huge amount of entertainment over the past few years with posts like this.

Secondly, all names, places, job details, etc have all been changed to preserve the confidentiality of all parties involved.

And with that out of the way, what were you doing yesterday evening to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2007? Me, I spent it out on an Ambulance trying to help injured people in Shropshire.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, St John Ambulance provides Accident & Emergency Ambulances to help support their local Ambulance Service at certain times. Over Christmas, St John Ambulance Shropshire have been putting a number of vehicles out, and last night, I was able to join one of the four crews who were on. Two were based in Shrewsbury and the other two (including my crew) were based in Telford.

If you have read previous posts of mine, you’ll know that I’m Ambulance Aid 1 qualified. The AA1 course, or more correctly, the Patient Transport Attendant course allows me to crew a Non-Emergency Ambulance. So, it means that on A&E work, I have to go as a third crew member, which can be great fun and a great learning exercise!

Well, we started at 19:00, working out of Donnington Ambulance Station. SH started as the same that we did. SH is a Clinical Supervisor based there (or I think that’s his role, I get confused at times!), and is an absolute legend! He’s the nicest bloke that you can ever hope to meet, and is a true credit to Shropshire Ambulance Service.

At about 19:45, we sent to standby at Telford Town Centre. And the other St John crew we were with were sent out on standby about 15 miles out of town in one of the outlying villages. Before we left station, I joked with the other crew that they’d obviously got the short straw – nothing was going to happen out there!

At 20:09, we were given our first emergency of the night, legs pains. It looked like I would be proven correct. It was only a short run to the incident, and 4 minutes later, we pulled out at the address. The family were very polite and pleasant, and the job was uneventful (and completely unrelated to alcohol...). We loaded the patient, and got under way to the local A&E unit. I was riding in the cab for this run, so I clearly heard the crew get sent to their first emergency. Sadly, their patient was dead before the crew, backed up by SH, arrived. Not really the greatest way to begin a shift...

We called clear at 20:46, and were put on standby again back at the Town Centre.

After a wait of just over 20 minutes, we were given another emergency. Now, please consider that this was given as a Category A call, so we rushed there on blue lights, with a Paramedic in a Response Car also sent to back us up. Now, I’m sorry to say this, but I’m going to classify this patient as a bit of a joke.

The patient had a small weeping wound on his leg which he wanted a dressing for. The wound was tiny, and the bandaging could quite happily have been done by any one of his family with any number of suitable dressings that could be bought from any number of high street stores! Up until recently, the district nurse normally visited to dress it for him. However, he had apparently “told her off", so she has since refused to attend him. I can’t really blame her; I get the distinct feeling that he was downplaying what had transpired between them...

However, it meant that the Ambulance Service had to pick up that slack. The patient was dealt with, and the Paramedic had a few strong words with him about what to do next time, and we spent less than 15 minutes on scene. Again, we called clear and went back up to the Town Centre.

After more than an hour of dozing up there, we were sent down to Tweedale Ambulance Station in preparation for Midnight. It was thought that Midnight to 04:00 would be the busiest period of the shift.

So, whilst taking a nice break down there, we got to watch the festivities in London welcoming in the New Year. And then, at 00:08, we got our first job of 2007. Off we hurtled to a kid who was incredibly drunk and had fallen over and bashed his head badly. It proved for a lovely run into A&E, followed by the obligatory job of cleaning the blood out of the back of the motor.

When we finally called clear, things seemed to have quietened down in the county, and we were sent back to Donnington for the first time that night. The benefit of this that we were soon joined by the other St John crew, and we were all able to sit down together, chill out, eat some party food and watch bits of True Lies, which is one of my favourite films. Of course, just before my really favourite bit in it (the Harrier scenes), we were passed another Emergency – fist vs. window. The guy had lost a lot of blood, and mobility and feeling in three of his fingers. As you might envisage, we rushed him straight into A&E!

With just 40 minutes of our shift left, we called clear and were asked to standby at the hospital. With about 10 minutes to go, we were first asked to go to a chest pains, but even better leaving the hospital grounds, we were stood down and sent back to Donnington. Just as we left, the second St John crew pulled in to drop off their latest patient.

We arrived, to find that we were the only crew on station! All of the other crews, cars and vehicles were out on jobs. We mopped out, and made ready. We were then joined by the other St John crew, just prior to the end of our shift (which would be 03:00). As there were no others around, we made the decision to continue for another hour.

At 03:10, our colleagues were sent to a job in an outlying village, and then at 03:15, we were also sent to a job. It was quite fortunate, as we were the only vehicle in Telford free at the time.

To cut a long story short, I had a great time. And whilst none of the jobs were particularly ‘exciting’, it was still great experience!