Nothing To Live For
If I’d been on night shifts this week, I’d have David Beckham’s dad to add to my list of celebrity patients (along with David Hasselhoff and Brian Harvey). But as I was on days, I found myself dealing with what must be one of the most horrible calls ever. I was on the radio at the time and I don’t envy the call taker who took this one bit.
It came in from man who was doing building work on a house. He heard a commotion coming from the house opposite and went to see if everyone was okay. Everyone was not okay; everyone was screaming because someone was not breathing. Since everyone was panicking, the workman dialled 999. Before starting CPR, the call taker quickly asked what had happened, in case this was a dangerous situation for our crew. The workman didn’t know. All he could see was a young woman lying on the floor, not breathing and her hysterical family around her - and that the young woman was clearly pregnant. Not wanting to waste any more time, the call taker started CPR.
Meanwhile, upstairs, we’d sent two crews, an FRU, a manager and the police. The FRU was a paramedic, the first crew were the usual technicians, but the second crew were what is informally known as a “green truck” - lesser qualified technicians who usually spend all day taking old people with minor injuries to hospital. Since the second crew on a suspended is primarily there just to assist with fetching equipment, lifting the patient, looking after distraught relatives and keeping in touch with control, and the “green truck” was far closer than the next regular ambulance, it made sense to send them. I bet they weren’t expecting to see something like that when they got up for work that morning.
The FRU arrived on scene first, took one look at the patient and asked the workman for the phone.
“Send HEMS, please, it’s a hanging!” he said.
HEMS was sent and then we didn’t hear anything from any of the crews for quite some time. Our sector control, concerned for their safety, decided to call the manager, who told her that everyone was still working on the patient. It had been over an hour and we wondered what was going on - had they managed to save her? Someone pointed out that if a woman dies when she is nearing full term, sometimes her baby can be saved if it is delivered by caesarian quickly. Were they doing that?
Then the HEMS desk got a call from their doctor to say that the resus attempt had failed and that they had pronounced life extinct. The woman was too early on in pregnancy for the baby to have any chance either. One by one, the crews withdrew from the scene, going off the road for that infamous cup of tea that makes everything better and them ready to face another call, which they did, an hour later. We made sure we gave them nice calls to little old ladies for the rest of the day.
We all felt quite despondent in the control room after we’d heard from HEMS - I guess we’d all been hoping for a happy ending against the odds. We all wondered what could be so awful in that young woman’s life that she had to destroy it, and her unborn child too. But perhaps the circumstances of her pregnancy were what was too dreadful to bear, and she felt it better that her child didn’t have to deal with them. Or perhaps she was suffering from a psychotic illness, not thinking straight, not realising what she was doing. You just don’t know, do you? It was too horrible for words. We didn’t want to think about it any more. We just pressed on, more calls, more ambulances… think about something else…
on September 29th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Could you please go into a bit more detail as to what HEMS is/does?
I’m sure I have seen it before somewhere, but cant place it.
=)
on September 29th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Sorry! HEMS is the London Air Ambulance (helicopter). It contains a doctor and a paramedic. They can do surgery on scene as well as whisking patients to the Royal London by helicopter.
http://www.londonsairambulance.com
on September 29th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Ow.
It’s hard to know whether that’s better or worse than after the baby is born. My second cousin and her baby died of puerperal psychosis, not long ago.
Ow.
on September 29th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
*shiver* how horrible.
on September 30th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Lousy job. Coping mechanisms to full power.
SD
on September 30th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
[…] After all of that talk, it seems reasonable to go back to finish with action, or reaction, or what you might otherwise call “real life”. On TrannyFattyAcid, a wrenching tale of what happens when personal targedy and pain collide with care-less, careless bureaucracy. And Nee Naw, an ambulance call-taker, has more real life than you want to encounter. (Warning, some may find that distressing.) […]
on September 30th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Thank you! =)
on October 5th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I read recently that suicide is the most common cause of death in pregnant women - ante-natal depression is a lot more common than people realise, but doesn’t get the media attention post-natal depression does.
on October 7th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
It’s terrible that anybody should be pushed so far as to commit suicide. Does anybody have any figures on how many cases of ante-natal depression occur in the UK every year?
Regards,
Nick
http://nickhough.blogspot.com
on October 7th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Ignore me - I managed to find an answer for myself!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1470262.stm
This states that:
“The proportion of women with probable depression was 11.8% at 18 weeks, rising to 13.5% at 32 weeks. That fell to 9.1% at eight weeks after the birth, and 8.1% at eight months.”
Regards,
Nick
http://nickhough.blogspot.com
on October 9th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Awful job, my thoughts go out to all involved.
Had similar job here recently tho not suicide. Mother full term, arrested as she went into labour at home. We were told after that the baby should be delivered within 4 mins of arrest for it to have any chance of survival. Sadly both mother and baby died.
The kind of job you practice for a college but hope you’ll never see.
on October 17th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
It’s interesting to read this . As a “frontline” Paramedic I often wonder what it’s like to be a call-taker. We often deride them for wrongly categorising the jobs we get sent to but fail to consider that they too get emoionally involved in a highly charged emotional call. As a matter of personal preference, when I’ve dealt with something particularly difficult or emotional I prefer to have 15 mins and a cup of tea but then go on to deal with another challenging job, just to make sure the last one didn’t affect my judgement. Gerr-ferrying is not the best way (for me) to get on with the job. Keep up the good work.
on October 17th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
That’s interesting to know. I know when I’ve just dealt with something nasty, I prefer “old person on the floor” calls for the rest of the day so I guess I was projecting that on to the crews! Unfortunately we can’t really go asking the crews what sort of calls they’d like after the nasty one (giving them time for a cup of tea goes without saying, though).
As for wrongly categorising the calls, we find it just as frustrating as you! Occasionally it is down to the call taker’s mistakes, but more often it’s the fault of AMPDS or lying callers!
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Ohhhhhh yes!! lying callers, dont we just love them. It doesn’t take the public long to work out how to use the system does it? How many “breathing problems” turn out to be non-traumatic back pain or an abdominal problem. Pain is subjective and varies according to race, gender, experience, cultural background etc etc. There is no perfect method to prioritise emergencies so there has to be a “catch-all” system so we dont miss a potentially life-threatening event. But it is VERY frustrating.
Just wondering, do call takers get a feel for the crap calls when they get them? I know we do.
on October 24th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Just wondering, do call takers get a feel for the crap calls when they get them?
Yes, yes, and double yes! That’s what makes it so frustrating!
on October 24th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I read this blog because a family member is a paramedic, and becaiuse I’ve had good help from pramedics.
>>>>How many “breathing problems” turn out to be non-traumatic back pain or an abdominal problem. Pain is subjective and varies according to race, gender, experience, cultural background etc etc
Yes to this! I was so embarrassed when I dialled 999 for breathing problems. By the time the paramedics arrived, the call taker had helped me to control the problem. I’d got an ankle injury as well, and was afraid they might think that I’d really called them out for that.
However, it turned out that I’d cracked a rib as well as broken the ankle - so, although there wasn’t a lot to be done about the rib, at least there turned out to be a reason for the breathing problem, and some justification for calling them. And they were terrific!
on November 4th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Wow. As a current medical applicant, your blog gives me a more clear perspective on the medical profession and all peripheral professions in the health care system that I ever would gain from a prospectus.
I find it quite strange the amount of time it took for someone to let you know that it was a hanging? Surely the family memebers would have informed someone??