I live on a busy road in the middle of my sector, so it’s not unusual for calls to the vicinity of my home to pop up on my screen. Today, however, was a little unusual. No sooner than I had sat down the in the allocator’s chair, I had to give out a call to an assault that had happened smack-bang outside my house. That was especially scary considering I had been there on my own in the dark 90 minutes beforehand! Then, a few minutes later, there was a diabetic collapsed in the road just round the corner by my local pub. A spate of calls followed for a drunk lying in the road near the High Street around lunchtime, though this is hardly unusual. A young woman was run over by a car travelling at 40mph a couple of junctions down the road from my house in the early afternoon (I know for a fact that the speed limit on that road is 30mph) and blued into hospital with a nasty head injury. And worst of all, a three month old baby just a few doors away from me was found dead in his cot minutes later. By the end of the shift, the road where I live was dotted with the angry red triangles that denote category A calls on the mapping system.
But it wasn’t over! It took over an hour to get home because someone had decided to jump under a tube train on my route home. He, miraculously, wasn’t killed and it took HEMS and several ambulance crews forever to remove him to hospital, leaving me stuck in a tunnel feeling like I was going to fall asleep on my feet. I finally got home ten minutes ago, and can you guess what was parked in the road opposite my house? Yes, a great big ambulance with its big blue flashing light on! Aargh!
September 24th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
*makes mental note* - find out his address and move to opposite side of town
September 25th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Jeez!
How many times did you call home to check all was ok? I’d be getting rather worried.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Blimey something set itself about to haunt you for the day, sounds like they managed to do it.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Tell me you didn’t drink the water…
September 25th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Eeep I think someone up there was trying to tell you somthing, as for the assult a smillialr thing happed to me I was woken up by the police one morning because someone had been assuasted in the communal hallway to our flats, I normally leave for work the exact time it happened but had the day off that day. Thank Goodness, the hallway was covered in blood as it was a head wound.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Oooh-err, how unnerving! Perhaps you’ve become an ambulance magnet … now that could make for a lucrative career in avoiding regions/whole countries …
Hello by the way! Have been reading your blog for ages but only just got around to commenting. It’s really well written, and great to know about what happens in ambulance control, am enjoying it!
September 26th, 2007 at 10:10 am
When I lived in London years ago, a guy I worked with had been a Tube train driver and he had a suicide. A pair of shoes ended up in his cabin and that was the end of him with that job. He ended up a total nervous wreck.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I’d have considered booking into a hotel for the night
November 4th, 2007 at 1:31 am
That’s freaky!! It sounds like you live in a safe and healthy part of the neighbourhood!