EMT

An Alphabet Of My Life: A

~ beetleypete ~ 66 Comments

A=Ambulances

An obvious choice of course. Until I retired in 2012, I spent over one-third of my life working in emergency ambulances as an EMT in Central London. Up to the time I left in 2001, being an ambulanceman defined me. From having to work shifts, to being a union organiser, and dealing with things every working day that most people will never see in their lifetimes.

Even now, almost 21 years after I worked my last shift in an ambulance, that experience lives on. It lives on in my dreams, my attitudes, my life in retirement. It is more than a job, even though at the time it was ‘just a job’. It is an unforgettable experience that makes you feel part of something that so few people outside of medical and emergency workers really understand. Being present at historical events that will long be remembered, or doing as something as simple as to put a dead man back into bed to give him some dignity in death.

In some ways, it was a thankless occupation. The management treated us badly, many members of the public thought it was acceptable to abuse us verbally and physically, and the pay was low by comparison with almost any other lifetime career. But other aspects of it were glorious. The times when someone thanked you sincerely, the wonderful relationships and friendships with colleagues and nursing staff at hospitals, and the feeling that you did something useful, instead of making more profit for faceless international conglomerates.

I like to think of it as one of the truly worthwhile jobs. Working in unsuitable conditions to help people as best as you could. Usually too hot or too cold, tired, wet, and frequently exhausted by the relentless workload and the pressures of dealing with difficult situations. Trying to stay cheerful and positive in the face of unspeakable scenes and sights, and remaining professional at all times in the public gaze.

There could be no other choice for ‘A’.

If you want to read more about my time doing that, I have posted many examples on this blog. Here are some links.

https://beetleypete.com/category/ambulance-stories/

The Ambulances I Worked In

Ambulance memories: Disasters

Ambulance stories (31)

~ beetleypete ~ 11 Comments

Reblogging this from 2013. Don’t believe everything you see and hear abour resuscitation.

beetleypete

Resuscitation exaggeration.

During my 21 years of operational duties in the London Ambulance Service, I attended a rough average of  5-6 cardiac arrest calls in a 7-shift period; slightly less than one a day. It was not unusual to attend four in one day, then none for three days after. Sometimes, these were following injury, so were hopeless to begin with, but usually they involved elderly people, who had died suddenly, as a result of heart problems and strokes. Occasionally, there would be infant cot deaths, or juvenile drownings, and other less common causes included in this number, but they were rare. My length of service meant that I worked for approximately 1,000 weeks, allowing for holidays and sickness. If I multiply this, by a very conservative estimate, of  just under four per week, then we arrive at a total of 3,750 attempts at resuscitation, during my time there.

At…

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Ambulance stories (28)

~ beetleypete ~ 12 Comments

I am reblogging this 2013 Ambulance post about some unspeakable behaviour by a ‘bystander’. It is not pleasant.

beetleypete

How low will they go?

One of the drawbacks of working for the emergency services, is that you tend to see the bad side of people. They are usually so nasty, complaining, bad-tempered, or just downright violent, that you end up despairing for the human race. Admittedly, you do mostly encounter them in situations where they are drunk, injured, (or believe themselves to be) unwell, (or believe themselves to be) or showing off in front of their friends, or a crowd of strangers. After a while, you are no longer surprised by bad behaviour, and regard it as the norm. In fact, when someone is actually nice to you, or appreciative of your efforts, your first reaction is one of suspicion, that they are softening you up, for worse to come later. You lose trust in mankind overall, and see every situation as one in where you have to be…

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Ambulance stories (25)

~ beetleypete ~ 15 Comments

An old Ambulance post from 2013. I think only two of you have seen this one before.

beetleypete

Nonsensical emergencies

Many of the 999 calls received in Ambulance Control are not worthy of a response by an emergency ambulance. However, this is not the fault of the operators taking these calls necessarily, as the callers can be very good liars, or have the talent of making a little sound like rather a lot. This does not happen so much now, as protocols have changed dramatically; however, thirty years ago, things were very different. These are just some of the countless calls that I attended, that should never has passed through the system. Please remember, that however crazy it may seem, these are genuine calls.

The fingernail faint

One evening, we were called to a nearby flat, with the job given as; ‘male fainted and bleeding’. As we arrived, we were met by a very distressed young lady, who showed us upstairs to her room. Her boyfriend had come…

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Ambulance stories (Introduction)

~ beetleypete ~ 13 Comments

I found this old Ambulance post from 2012 that nobody has ever viewed. To be honest, it isn’t that interesting, but 10 years on, it deserves a second try.

beetleypete

It has been suggested, by family and friends, that I should add some stories of my experiences in the London Ambulance Service. These may be amusing or diverting to some, perhaps informative to others. I have added a new category for these tales, although they will also be categorised ‘Nostalgia and Reflections, for obvious reasons.

As many of the subjects of these recollections will still be alive, as will many of their families, I shall be careful not to identify them too clearly. I will be changing real names, omitting surnames, and not including actual addresses. Please be assured, that no matter how fanciful or contrived these incidents may appear, they will all be 100% true, memory permitting.

In recent years, television programmes, both factual and fictional, have sought to portray the life of Ambulance Crews and Paramedics as exciting and vital. They are seen rushing from one emergency to…

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Ambulance stories (15)

~ beetleypete ~ 20 Comments

I found this old Ambulance post from 2012. It looks like only one person ever read it. Given the unpleasant story related, that is hardly surprising.

beetleypete

Is that better?

Retention of urine is a common condition, primarily affecting male patients. As men grow older, the prostate gland continues to enlarge, and often constricts the urethra. This can result in inability to pass water at all, or in frequent, unsatisfying urination. Other causes might include physical obstructions, such as a tumour, though this is less likely. So, this condition is considered a run-of-the-mill job by ambulance crews, and is normally already diagnosed by a G.P. The ambulance is summoned to take the affected person to hospital, for a pre-arranged examination by a urologist, and it is not considered to be an emergency. In many cases, the man will make his own way to hospital, though if he has another condition already, such as a heart problem, difficulty in walking, or breathing problems, it is likely that his doctor will request transport by ambulance.

One late afternoon shift…

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Nice Times (4)

~ beetleypete ~ 60 Comments

Continuing my happy mood with more memories that make me feel good.

Taking my mum to The Ritz Hotel in London for the classic High Tea. A birthday treat for her 80th, and something she had never done. She was thrilled by the opulent surroundings, and the quality of the food served. Then some waiters brought a tiny birthday cake to the table, with one lit candle in it. They sung Happy Birthday to her, and the others in the restaurant gave her a round of applause. The look on her face was priceless. She treasured that cake, and kept it in its little box in her fridge for the next seven years. I found it still there, when I was clearing out her fridge after she had died.

Picking Ollie up from the Animal Hospital in Newmarket. He had just had his final eye operation for Entropion, and had been kept in for three nights after. His sheer delight at seeing us arrive to collect him brought happy tears to my eyes.

Standing on a hotel balcony in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Just across the street from that hotel was the splendour of the famous Registan temple complex. I had read about Samarkand and the silk route when I was very young. Now here I was, standing opposite that history. I felt every second of that moment, deep inside.

I was part of the ambulance crew that was first on scene at the Ladbroke Grove train crash in 1999, one of the biggest rail disasters in British history. Acting as incident officer, I had to request every available ambulance in London to attend the scene. As they started to arrive, I recognised one crew, a young man and woman from Fulham Ambulance Station. I asked them to help me triage the injured that were being brought to a central point, and for one of them to set up an aid station for walking wounded in a nearby school. At the debrief over six hours later, they approached me and said, “We were so nervous about going to that job, but when we saw you were there sorting things out, we knew we would be okay”. One of the best things anyone ever said to me, in my entire life.

Sitting in a lounge chair outside our cabin at the Kilimanjaro Safari Lodge, in Kenya. I was drinking a gin and tonic before dinner, looking at the distant mountain as thousands of wildebeest crossed the horizon. My wife was inside showering and getting ready, and I sensed a movement next to me. I was amazed to see a huge male Mandrill had come and sat next to my chair. Not much smaller than me, with its distinctive coloured facial markings, and teeth as big as a wolf. I was really scared, yet fascinated. It watched me closely for a few moments before walking away. It was completely non threatening, and I felt the connection with a wild animal that meant me no harm. A simply unforgettable moment.

Ambulance life

~ beetleypete ~ 14 Comments

Reblogging a 2012 post that nobody (except A) has seen. It is about my early days as an EMT in London. It is all very different now of course.

beetleypete

For those who read my posts on a regular basis, you may see a pattern appearing in my ‘Ambulance Stories’ category. That pattern is that many of the calls we were sent to, differ greatly from the description given to us by Ambulance Control. This may seem fanciful and affected to the outsider, though I can assure you that all these stories are 100% accurate. Perhaps some explanation of general life as an Ambulanceman in London (at least when I was still in it ) will put some of this into better context.

At the time I joined, the London Ambulance Service was a very different organisation to the one it is today. It was short-staffed, under-funded, and the staff were poorly paid, and did the job with very little equipment. Many of the operational managers were ex-military types, and the uniform reflected this, in being totally unsuitable for the…

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Christmas In An Ambulance

~ beetleypete ~ 63 Comments

As you probably know, I spent a third of my life as an EMT in Central London. Anyone who worked in that job will tell you that the two busiest days of the year are New Year’s Eve, and Christmas Day.

But why Christmas Day? The shops are closed, and most people are at home opening presents, wearing bad taste jumpers, and anticipating a day of eating, drinking, and watching TV.

For emergency ambulance crews, the day starts with the leftovers of the previous shift. Christmas Eve parties, drunken revellers who had fallen over, some in virtual comas from excessive alcohol consumption. Head injuries, cuts and bruises from fights, maybe broken ankles if the streets were icy. Calls to the Police Station to examine injured prisoners, and all this on top of the everyday medical emergencies that don’t go away just because it is the 25th of December.

Once the presents are open, there are the accidents involving children. Rushing off to try out new rollerblades, skateboards, and cycles, many have sustained injuries not long after breakfast. For some, that will mean a few hours spent in the emergency department of the local hospital, awaiting stitches and Tetanus injections. For the unlucky few, it will result in being on life support in the Intensive Care Unit; worried parents sitting by the bed.

Many people start drinking much earlier on Christmas day. Few of those would usually have alcohol just after breakfast, so by midday they are feeling the effects. As the food comes out of the oven, the calls change to burns, scalds, and deep cuts from carving knives. For those that escape kitchen accidents and settle down for the afternoon, the greater than usual consumption of food becomes the problem.

Wind can be incredibly painful. Though it is not life-threatening, to a family the worse for drink and stress, that sharp pain may be indicative of something more sinister, like a blocked bowel, or perhaps a heart attack. So they call 999, and then get stressed out even more by having to wait longer than usual because we are so busy. For some unfortunates, the combination of alcohol, stress, and over-eating does actually cause a heart attack. Also Diabetic Coma, exacerbation of existing breathing problems like Asthma, or the rupture of an Aortic Aneurysm.

By early afternoon, it is not unusual to be trying to resuscitate people who have literally dropped dead in front of the Christmas Tree. This is usually going on in front of a number of distraught family members, some still holding unopened presents.

The early evening brings its own problems. Calls to people who cannot be roused because they have had so much to drink. Babies and small children put down to rest, then found in situations of medical emergency, like high temperatures or even cot death. Following those dramas, people start to leave for home. This now involves car accidents where the drivers are over the limit from ‘just a couple of drinks’. Their relative insisted they have something before they leave, and that might have been a whole tumbler full of brandy, on top of that ‘couple of glasses’ with dinner. They might be unfamiliar with the area, go the wrong way up a one-way street, or not notice that person who was walking over a pedestrian crossing.

In some cases, the victims are also drunk; sometimes wandering around in the hope of finding a shop open, or deciding to cycle home after having been drinking all day.

For most of you this year, it will be a happy and trouble free day. But when you hear a siren in the distance, or see the blue lights of an ambulance pass your window, now you will now why.

An Unconvinced EMT

~ beetleypete ~ 55 Comments

At one time, I used to post a lot of true stories about my time in the London Ambulance Service. Eventually, they can become repetitive, such is the nature of the job. And some are hard to believe, I understand that. Because truth really is stranger than fiction. If anyone has never read any, they can all be found in the ‘Categories’ on the right of any page, under ‘Ambulance Stories’. And you have my sworn promise that each and every one of them is 100% accurate.

However, there is one thing about doing that job that you may not be aware of. People lie.

In their desire to make sure that an emergency ambulance will be sent, members of the public are not above lying. In cases where they are not actually inventing an illness, they do not hesitate to ’embellish’ what symptoms might be presenting, until an everyday bellyache can be made to sound like a ruptured Aortic Aneurysm. Others with indegstion after consuming a huge Indian meal and six beers will say they are ‘having a heart attack’, without trying to take any antacid medicine first.

And you may find it hard to believe that some people actually want to be in hospital. They like the attention, the sympathy, the company, and the sense of drama as they are wheeled into the emergency room. Would you be surprised to know that some people actually call 999 for an ambulance as much as 100 times a year? Or that so-called ‘nuisance callers’ are actually sent letters telling them that no more ambulances will be sent in response to their frequent calls? And it is not rare, and not just lonely people, or elderly people. Neither are most of them mentally ill, in any form. They just like having the emergency services come to them.

Then there is the strange world of ‘Munchausen by Proxy’. If you have never heard of this, it is where someone calls you on behalf of a relative, and tells you that they are very ill or injured, and need medical treatment. In most cases I experienced, this was usually a female caller, asking for help for a baby or small child. In a few very sad cases, it was discovered later that they had actually injured the child themselves, or poisoned them in some way that proved they needed emergency treatment. When I joined up as an EMT, I never expected to be called to a child injured by its own mother just so that she could get attention. This is also more common than you might expect, especially in a huge city like London. Here is a proper explanation of it.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/fabricated-or-induced-illness/

This also has a ‘twin’, in the singular ‘Munchausen’s Syndrome’, where the caller has injured or drugged themselves, or invented an illness in order to seek medical attention or admission to hospital.

As well as wasting the time of the control room call-takers, the ambulance crews that could be doing something better, and the overworked hospital staff, they create something else. After years of this, day in day out, ambulance staff become cynical, disbelieving, and jaded. Someone tells you that they have this disease, or that illness, and you don’t take their word for any of it. Don’t get me wrong here, they are still treated respectfully and professionally, but they have created a culture whereby only visible injury or diagnosed serious symptoms are considered to be ‘worthwhile’ by those doing the job.

By the time I had been in the job for fifteen years, this situation had become so widespread, that a term was invented for it. ‘Paramedic Burnout’.

Officially, this was used to describe working in a very stressful and often harrowing job for so long, that staff became overwhelmed by it, similar to PTSD. Unofficially, it was staff who were sick to death of constantly attending time-wasting calls, being lied to, and being verbally and physically abused. I got to the stage, and so did many of my colleagues, where I firmly believed that at the very least, around fifty percent of the calls we were being sent to were spurious, or did not require an emergency attendance.

It comes to something where going to a train crash where 30 people have been killed and over 400 injured, is referred to as a ‘good job’. Or when you walk over to the body of a young woman who has jumped from a twenty-second floor balcony, turn to your colleague and say “At least she meant to do it”.

The next time you move your car over for an ambulance coming past with lights flashing, and sirens blaring, thanks for doing that. As they take their lives in their hands to speed through traffic heading for the next emergency, let’s hope they are not just on their way to someone who has eaten too much spicy food.