Be Careful What You Wish For (Part 1)
This week is Relief Week, which means I get to work on other desks. Yesterday, I found myself on the South West desk. The South West is where Steve works, and as I rang his station, I wondered if he was working today.
On my tea break, I checked my phone, and there was a message from Steve. “Listening to you on channel 4! I’m on the FRU, SW500.” I promised I’d keep an eye open for any interesting calls for him!
Back in the room, there was a buzz on my radio.
“Red base, SW500 on channel 4?” said a familiar voice.
“Go ahead, SW500, over.”
“I’ve just been sent on cad 590, an amber* to a woman who has had… vaginal pain… for two weeks. I don’t suppose I could be cancelled?”
I checked that we had a vehicle on the call and asked the FRU desk to cancel Steve. Unfortunately, our vehicle got diverted to a higher priority call, but on close inspection of the diagnosis they decided to cancel him anyway. FRU desk were slightly confused as to why their FRU wanted to speak to me and not them. I didn’t see fit to explain!
Several hours later, my stint on the South West was over and I went downstairs to take some calls. I texted Steve to say I was no longer on his sector, and got the reply “Good luck with the call taking. Try and get me something interesting, like a suspended.” I assured him that if I got any calls in his area, I’d personally get the callers to kill the patients to give his some decent jobs, so he wouldn’t have to go on any Pain In Vaginas.
I should know better than to say things like this, of course.
Fast forward four hours, and a call comes in in South West London. A man is in a state of mild panic. As the operator connects the call, he’s saying something about “not breathing”, so I know straight away what it’s going to be. As I speak to him, he explains that his mother, who is a cancer patient, has just this second stopped breathing. His wife is doing CPR, but she’s not sure she’s doing it right - can I help them whilst the ambulance is coming?
Life is so much easier when people actually want your help and don’t just scream “send the ambulance!” at you. The first step was to get the patient on the floor so there is a good firm surface for CPR.
“I can’t, she’s got cancer, she’s very frail, it’ll hurt her… I mean -” started the son, clearly realising the ridiculousness of what he was saying mid sentence. “Okay, I’ll have a go.”
Unfortunately after about thirty seconds of trying, it became clear that even between the two of them, they weren’t going to budge her. From what he’d already said, my gut feeling was that this was not going to be a successful resus, and that the emphasis should shift from “saving a life” to “making the family feel they did everything they could whilst maintaining as much of the patient’s dignity as possible”. So I pressed on with the rest of the CPR instructions, with the son and his wife taking turns, and me issuing encouragement into the room via the phone’s loudspeaker.
All was going smoothly, which gave me time to check on the progress of the ambulance. You’ve probably guessed this by now. On the log, I saw a very familiar callsign had been dispatched. Steve! It wasn’t his immediate area, which made it even more of a coincidence. I began to feel very guilty about our earlier conversation, as if I had wished this to happen! Like I had killed the patient myself. Suffice to say that is the last time I ever promise anyone a suspended, even in jest!
My thoughts were interrupted by a second female entering the room and starting to scream. The son then promptly broke down in tears, and the wife, who had been the rock of the situation up till now even started to go a bit wobbly.
Then I heard the sirens approach, and someone else entered the room. I heard that familiar voice again, just as the phone line went dead.
Usually, call takers hear very little of what happened after the crew arrive. We can see if the patient is taken to hospital, and, if there is a blue call, their observations and possibly a diagnosis, but that’s it. I knew I’d get to hear more about this one, though, and so will you - when Steve takes up the story later in his blog. He’s out saving lives at the moment, but I’ll add a link once he has written it…
Edit Click here for Part 2, Steve’s post.
* Don’t ask me why a woman who has had vaginal pain for two weeks comes up as an amber. The words “AMPDS” and “useless” spring to mind.
on February 6th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Try not to blame yourself, if it was her time then no amount of wishing or not wishing would have changed anything. Mind you I know when I worked as a bouncer nobody was allowed to say ‘It’s quiet tonight’ as you could guarantee that there would be a massive kick off very shortly !!!
on February 6th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Yay! More cross-blogging! I love it!
on February 6th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
“AMPDS . . .useless”. Amen to that.
on February 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
‘Tis written.
http://eyesofanemt.blogspot.com/2008/02/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-part-2.html
on February 7th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Saving lives?? You’re a funny man! It was back to situation normal today - most exciting job was a man with a broken leg….will post about that tomorrow if there’s nothing else to write about
on February 7th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Broken legs scare me! Was it a dangly foot job? Ugh.
on February 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
There’s me thinking that Murphy’s law only applied to my world in IT…
on February 11th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Hi there - Love your blog been reading from Darwin, NT Australia on my third nightshift in a row! Nice to see its the same the world over (and yep….we also think AMPDS bites! but we are so far behind the times we are still on v10.3 the 1998 version!)
Hope to read more soon!
on February 13th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
To Jimbob:
Good for you!
Great post by the way! I love it when you cross blog it makes it far more exciting!
on February 24th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
just had to thank you for the best named ems blog ever…love it!
question for you - what do the crews think of the dispatchers and vice-versa? seems like a lot of busy services here in the states have an ongoing battle with dispatch, didn’t know if it was like that in dear old blighty as well.
on February 24th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Just to let you know Mark, those immature comments above were not posted by me!
DH(AHA)PD
I’m a paramedic and I think that (most) dispatchers are great. Where I work, most paramedics get on with most of the dispatches. If there is any sort of interesting case, the dispatchers will often phone us up for all the gory details, or if it is funny, have a good old chuckle!! I especially like the dispatchers when they find someone else to do a job because I have just tucked into a nice warm pizza! LOL! Sometimes, like you, we have a little tiff with the bods at control because they don’t seem to realise that there is someone nearer! And that their computer is lying! Or their stupid AMPDS system proritises a stubbed toe over a ‘nan down’, but that is just us, taking out our mood on them, poor blokes! But generally yeah, we get on well with control, where I work anyway!
on February 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
As a dispatcher, do you have to deal with the calls when a donor organ becomes available and the child has to be collected to be taken to Gt Ormond Street? If you do, please could you do some detective work for me (if it’s possible) and find out who the Australian paramedic was who had to collect Lucy, my husband and I in his fast response vehicle and deliver us to GOSH on the night of 6th August 2006. I know it’s nearly 18 months ago but I would just like to thank him and everyone involved that night for the part that they played. Lucy is doing very well now.
Thanks
Bev
on February 24th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Yes, we do, but I wouldn’t be able to find that out for you, I’m afraid. Try PALS - they should be able to find out for you. Glad to hear Lucy is doing well!
on February 24th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Thanks ever so much, I’ve fired off an email to them. I would love the guy to know how she is doing. You all do such a fantastic job.
Bev
on March 6th, 2008 at 6:21 am
I’m glad I stumbled on your blog. I am an EMD in Vancovuer, Canada who has just started a similar blog. http://fromthetower.wordpress.com I’d love for you to check it out over the next few weeks.
on March 7th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Off Topic, but I thought you and your listeners would enjoye this radio documentary about the Melbourne Ambulance call takers. It was broadcast on Radio National Australia last week. You can download it from this page: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/radioeye/stories/2008/2175377.htm
(Note that podcasts are only available for about 1 month after the original broadcast date)
000 Emergency
1 March 2008
Most people have never called 000 for an ambulance. It’s difficult to imagine the terror and panic of finding your best friend not breathing and not conscious or your partner having a cardiac arrest. It can be the most crucial time in someone’s life and for a short period you are alone and in charge of the situation with nothing to help you but a voice on the end of a telephone.
000 is an intense and confronting program that takes us down the wires and across the airwaves of the Emergency Services Communications network. As we hear 000 call takers trying to calm callers and resuscitate patients over the phone, dispatchers on the other side of the room have already located the nearest ambulance and communicated the job over the radio. Callers are often still on the phone to 000 by the time the paramedics arrive.
The 000 call taker, Les Dougan, guides us through this world and explores its unique perspective on the city of Melbourne and the ceaseless chaos of life.
on March 19th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Cliff hanger!!!!!!!
on March 23rd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Happy Easter
on March 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Has Mark been id’d or something? He doesn’t seem to blog anymore
on April 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 pm
“Be careful what you wish for….”
Does that include wishing for more blog posts from Mark?
on April 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
What Madbat and Rach said,
Hope you are OK and will be posting again soon
on April 4th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Where are you? You ok?
on April 6th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Hi - love reading your blog - but where have you gone? Please come back soon Hope you’re OK.
on April 6th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
hope you are ok Mark. Anyways, Ive been checking everyday for a couple of months and as there are no more posts im guessing this blog is dead now, so i’ll sign off. But good luck in whatever your doing now and in the future. Bless you.
on April 7th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Thanks for letting us know why you’ve gone quiet. I’ll be leaving this blog on my RSS feed in the hopes that eventually you’ll be back. In the meantime, I hope that whatever that personal situation is changes for the better.
on April 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Mark, thanks for letting us know you’re taking a break. I hope all circumstances get better for you soon. Will be anxiously awaiting your return
on April 7th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Glad you’re still around, and hope whatever is difficult for you gets better soon. Will keep checking back in the hope that eventually you feel able to entertain us all again. Take care.
on April 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Mark,
Another Chris, who would like to echo the sentiments of the first!
on April 10th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Mark, I hope things settle down soon and you can resume posting, all the best with the new home.
The Driving Instructor
on April 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Come back soon! - I love reading your blog, it is fascinating and makes me feel lucky to be an office monkey some days…