This call was received from a pharmacy on one of the busiest streets in Central London. Bear that in mind as you read on.
“Someone just shouted ‘call an ambulance’” explained the woman. “There’s… someone bleeding in the road, or something.”
“What’s the address?” I ask.
The woman tells me that it’s outside the address she’s ringing from. Checking my “possible duplicates” screen, I see that there’s been a motorcycle accident about fifty metres away. I explain this to her, and ask her to go outside and check the location of the patient and find out what’s happened.
“Oh no!” says the woman. “I can’t do that, I can’t leave my shop. I have customers to serve!”
Nice to see where her priorities lie.
“Okay, can you send someone else?”
“No, there is no-one else here!” she says.
“What about the customers you just mentioned?”
The woman mutters something I can’t hear, and then a young man comes to the phone. I try to ask him to go out and check what is going on, but I don’t get far before he starts shouting and swearing at me.
“Look, you bloody timewaster! Stop f***ing asking me to go outside! She’s dead, okay! Someone is dead! Send the f***ing ambulance and stop asking stupid questions!!!”
And then the line goes dead.
Now, I’ve had the “stupid questions” accusation quite a few times before, and I can understand people getting annoyed with some of the AMPDS triage questions, but this is the first time someone has actually thought that knowing the location and condition of the patient is a “stupid question”. Had he stayed on the line, I would have had another “stupid question” to ask, which would be “how do you know she is dead if you haven’t even seen her?”
As much as I’d like not to, I have to ring the pharmacy back. This time I get a third person, an older man. I explain to him that someone has rather abusively told me that someone is dead, and that two people have refused to go out and investigate. I explain that at the moment we have two ambulances on way (one to the accident round the corner, and one to the pharmacy) and that I need to know if it is the same patient so that we don’t waste an ambulance. I explain that if she is “dead”, we need to start CPR, which I could instruct him on, or else she will die. Do you think I had more luck with this man? No, of course I didn’t.
“I am not going out!” he huffed. “I am working!”
“Send someone else, then!” I implored.
“There is no-one else!”
“I have spoken to three different people in your shop,” I point out. “Surely one of them can be bothered to step outside this shop in order to help this poor lady who might not be breathing!”
“No!” said the man. “That is your job!”
“My job is to instruct you as to how to help her. And you,” I said “are stopping me from doing my job.”
“I am not a doctor!” said the man irrelevantly. “I cannot do anything. Goodbye!”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that helping your fellow human beings is everyone’s job, not just that of those who are paid to do it. I hope that tomorrow those three people all get hit by a big red bus and that everyone steps around their bleeding bodies as they lay dying in the street, saying “Sorry, I can’t help you. It’s not my job.”
(Still, you’ll be pleased to know that the outcome could have been a lot worse. It was indeed a second patient, so the decision to send a second ambulance was correct, and it turned out that she was only fitting, and not dead after all.)
March 9th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Urgh. Please Mark, restore my faith in humanity and tell a tale of human decency.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!
- On a separate note, what do you think of the 101 number they’re introducing for non-emergency calls?
March 9th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Its always the same, everyone loves to look but no-one likes to help……
I asked (whilst furiously doing CPR) a bystander to hold up a blanket so not the world its wife and its dog could see us working on an old dear in the street, now this person had the time to stop and stare but when asked muttered something about being somewhere and scuttled off, only to be spotted by my crewmate a few minutes later lurking around the corner still watching……. livid doesnt cover it….. GGRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rant over.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
I have to stop reading your blog. I’m losing my faith in human nature.
March 10th, 2006 at 12:30 am
id like to know whos going to answer this 101 number..
and besides that we have a non emergency number for the ambulance service, its called NHS Direct
March 10th, 2006 at 12:42 am
or should the be NHS redirect. they told me they were phone a ambulance when i call for a non A&E problem. my reply was i dont want a ambo, if i did i call 999, all i want is some advice. they said we are going to phone for one, i replyed that i had transport and use it.
i did not go to a&e, i call a nurse friend. bloody NHS direct
March 10th, 2006 at 12:44 am
This 101 thing as far as I was aware, was only for police? Or did I misread it? Press ‘1′ for police, ‘2′ for ambulance, ‘3′ for fire, and it’ll route to the non-emergency police number for your area, nhs direct for ambulance, and … and … fuck knows for fire brigade. Put them through the fire controllers anyway. They only work when they receive one of their 14 calls a day.
As for human nature, it’s quite true. I was first on scene for a fatal RTC the other week, apart from rubber neckers, I was the only one who bothered to stop. I protected the scene as best I could, called for help, and checked over the 3 occupants of the car. As it happened one was dead so he was no bother, and the other two were screaming like banshees, so they were fine ! Good airways, conscious, fully alert and awake and responding to pain. Brilliant.
Fire brigade, police and ambulance took over from there. But just me could be bothered to stop and approach? That’s disgusting…
March 10th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Hi There,
I’ve only just accross this blog today, and i’m already hooked!
I’m a full time student, but a part time call handler for the police. So I do get to do everything. 999/non emergencies and every type of call.
Though very rarly do I get to speak to Thambulance (work joke) - its the admin desk that do.
Humanity is absolutly crazy. You’d think a pharmasist of all people would take the moment to offer help. Do they not have to be First Aid trained anyway? in case people came in and needed help.
Suppose they’d just say - “you’d need a doctor for that, go home and call one”.
– As for 101 service. I do know a little about this. It will be answered by the police in association with the council. It will be available in five police force areas. Its for reporting of anti social behaviour / minor crime / aband veh’s ect. its going to be nationwide for the police 2008.
Its not going to be for anyone else - for a very long time! As if they do they need to do it for all!
March 10th, 2006 at 1:23 am
I think we have to remember that these people might be scared, upset or feel unable to help. Joe Public can be very unpredictable when suddenly faced with a life or death situation.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:30 am
Oh my god, that is infuriating!
You can bet that if they were hit by a bus, they’d be asking everyone who walked past “Hey, why aren’t you helping me?”
Please tell a few stories or really fantastic bystander response!!
Before I was involved with ambulance, I witnessed an elderly man fall and gain a large lac to his forehead. By the time the ambo arrived he was bandaged up and ready to go.
March 10th, 2006 at 4:24 am
Isn’t there a “Good Samaritan” law in the UK which compels people to help others? Perhaps it was France. I remember when Princess Di was in her accident, the French doctors who stopped to administer aid in the tunnel referenced the law to explain why they stopped and how it was not only a kind response but also mandated by law.
Can bystanders be sued if they help and the patient becomes ill or dies? Perhaps that explains the reluctance. I can’t understand how anyone could lack the empathy and compassion to help someone who is ill and needs an ambulance.
March 10th, 2006 at 5:10 am
Maybe what’s needed is follow up - something along the lines of the logs and all details get sent to the unfortunate patient who’s then at liberty to go to the shop and complain, or better still - go to ‘head office’ and file proper complaints that get people disciplinary measures.
March 10th, 2006 at 9:08 am
A lot of people are selfish narrow minded numbskulls really aren’t they?
In the words of Sid Vicious:-
“I’ve met the man on the street. He’s a c***.”
March 10th, 2006 at 9:11 am
good god… I hope these people can sleep at night
March 10th, 2006 at 10:21 am
Reading things like this really makes me wonder about just how callous people can be. It does however answer one thing that has often puzzled me.
When I read about the Holocaust or other more recent atrocities I always wonder how the vast majority of presumably decent people can allow these things to happen. Reading your blog I guess the reason is that they dont see it as their responsibility so they just dont care.
March 10th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Nothing surprises me any more….
Off duty and when stopping to help (as we all should - fellow humans and all) I’ve asked people to go to pubs for ice before and been told that they couldn’t do that unless someone bought a drink……
Had people slow down and stare while I was doing BLS and had no one stop for ages and help until an 80+ y/o wobbly on her legs little ol’ lady come and offered help, I gave her my mobile to chat to the NeeNaw call handler since I was worried she may never get up if she knelt down……
One occasion dealing with someone having an epileptic fit in a major high street had a girl guide aged about 11/12 came over and sat cross legged next to me while I dealt with patient in case I needed a spare pair of hands, once the guy came round and was talking to us she simply got up and walked off. None of the hundred or so adults that decided to stop and rubber neck even asked if I wanted them to call the NeeNaw service……
Fifteen years ago there would have been plenty of people coming forward with offers of help and tartan blankets (where do they all come from? you never see them being sold….) The world has become a sadder less caring place.
March 10th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Some of us do respond - here in Scotland I’ve never seen a lack of response to an accident / incident. Of course, some people do stand and stare but others react. Last time was just before Christmas; a guy keeled over backwards at a bus stop. Three of us dashed towards him - none in time to stop him him bashing his skull off the pavement. I dialled 999 and talked through what had happened while we all knelt by him - then he started to come round - no ambulance needed. He’d had a fit, couldn’t speak and was very wobbly. We helped him up and I walked him to the nearby health centre. A guy who had helped came running after me with the shopping that had been left behind. A GP and nurse checked him over and then I walked him back to the bus stop. 15 minutes of my time; I couldn’t walk past someone and know many others who wouldn’t.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:03 am
I can understand, perhaps, that had it been in a busy newsagents shop at lunchtime, the sole staffmember may have not wanted to leave the shop and go outside, incase he found his business ransacked on his return. (Although you would have thought that in a busy shop maybe at least one of the customers would have volunteered to do so).
But a pharmacy? With at least three members of staff? Aren’t pharmacists supposed to be able to provide advice about minor ailments and medical problems? Don’t they sell First Aid kits? Surely someone working in a pharmacy would be at least a tiny bit interested in the excitement going on outside?
Do you know if it was one of the big chain pharmacies or a small independent? (If it was a big chain one, I’d have thought they’d just *love* the bad publicity should it happen to get out… :-D)
March 10th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
I suppose it’s against the rules to tell us which pharmacy so that we could all boycott or picket it…
March 10th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
My mate is the RAF, and she is obliged to stop and help (I don’t think anyone else in the UK is, though!). We were on a tricky mountain pass road in the highlands of Scotland, it was chucking it down, pitch black and the road was practically empty apart from some hardened sheep. My mate saw the back end of a car in a ditch, so we stopped. It turned out the people were in a bypasser’s car over the road and were fine but shocked, waiting for the tow truck. They told us that seven people had stopped to ask if they were ok in the past two hours - bearing in mind this road is usually deserted in bad weather. I’m first aid trained so know it’s better to do something than nothing. Maybe it should be part of the school curriculum? The ’someone else will do it’ attitute bothers me.
March 10th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
I’m in the RAF myself, and just the other week I was in a position to help…
I was surfing around the net at about 2.30am (don’t ask…!) and heard a *thump* outside. I looked out, saw someone run past the house and went out to investigate. A car had hit some wooden bollards, and rolled onto it’s roof - and from there I got my mobile and Leatherman just before I ran out to check the situation!
Fortunately the running woman came back and she was the only occupant of the car. Police were called, I took her in until they arrived and cleaned up the cuts from the glass.
The worst part of it all was that I didn’t find out that she was due her baby in 9-weeks time. Eeep!
There are nice people about, they don’t say much.
March 10th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
From the point of view of an ambulance turning up on scene there is often a relationship between the amount of bystanders helping and the severity of the call. If the patient is a ‘not much’ there are usually plenty of people offering advice to the ambulance crew such as:
‘you’ll need a chair mate’, ‘give him some oxygen’, ‘he’s not drunk!’ and ‘you must take him to hospital’
As the severity of the call / injuries increases then the involvement of bystanders lessens. It is a bad sign when you turn into a street and there is a patient on the floor with an invisible barrier around them that no one wants to cross. If the nearest person is watching from the other side of the road then it is a bad sign. People try to steer clear of death.
However, when I turn up and bystanders have called the ambulance, helped and stayed I always make a point of thanking them for their time. Unfortunately when people do things right in awful situations it often goes unnoticed.
There are many many caring and compassionate people out there, my most vivid memory being one lady who sat with a young boy who had what could only be described as horrific fractures following being hit by a car. No one else would go near him and there was a collection of onlookers in a semicircle far away to not be involved but close enough to see. This lady was crying as she was reassuring this boy. And she continued to do so as we corrected the deformity. As soon as blood supply was restored we needed to leave the scene with him straight away with no time to thank this lady.
Because of my job I had to be there, this lady didn’t have to be there and she was a star. She had the courage to help, not everyone has that.
March 10th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
I’m shocked. As a radiography student doing a unit in Interprofessional Learning, thus aiming to increase our awareness of other’s roles in health and social care, there are pharmacists involved. I can’t believe that health care workers (although they are in the community) would ignore such an incident directly outside their shop. Maybe it links to Reynolds blogs about GP’s.
Disgusted… what’s the world coming to!
March 10th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Sometimes i weap for the species. I am trying to tell my self it was just fear preventing these people from helping and not their wallets.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Outrageous behaviour
Get the address flagged as being abusive to ambulance staff, note the name of the pharmacy, find out who the pharmacist is and complain to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society: http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/pdfs/complaintspharmproc.pdf
March 11th, 2006 at 12:21 am
In Spain, where I live, that behaviour is a criminal offense (deny of aid). It can and will put you behind the bars if the person you refuse to help dies.
One wonders why do we need those laws until reads something like this… Sad.
March 11th, 2006 at 10:45 am
The general public never cease to dissapoint. Also as a reply to MK2B. Thank goodness you turned up at that RTC before the Fire Brigade did on one of our 14 calls. Only 13 to go. maybe if many followed protocol more at RTC rather than dragging casualties out sideways then spineboarding them we would be a little busier eh.
March 12th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Trish said: Isn’t there a “Good Samaritan” law in the UK which compels people to help others? … Can bystanders be sued if they help and the patient becomes ill or dies?
A Good Samaritan law makes sense until you get flagged like I did by some fuckwit laying in the street whose mates then jump out of the bushes and attempt to carjack you. Since then I’ve looked from a distance for blood or other hard-to-fake signs of distress before wading in.
On the other hand, the idiots in this pharmacy were going to be safe because there were enough other people around. On top of that it’s just good business sense to help. They’d get interviewed by the local rag and that’s free publicity.
March 12th, 2006 at 1:59 am
Eastfire
I love you really. I think my dig was taken out of context. I wasn’t saying you don’t work when you DO get called out. You work bloody hard and for a long time on calls. My dig was purely based on the number of calls and the relative differences of volume between police, ambulance and fire and the call handlers. You also do a lot more training time than the rest of us put together (living next to a fire station I see it day in… day out.) Also, ‘14′ is based purely on the 12 hour day I did during Op Fresco a few years back. Things may have changed since then.
I’m not sure if your last sentence was a dig at me, but if it was, I’ll offer this: I did not move any of the casualties at all. My primary concern was dead or alive. I didn’t have much time to think beyond that point, because fire were first on scene very shortly afterwards.
March 12th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Well, shocking as it is, I am not surprised, and there is the sad thing.
Went to a job about 2 years back, Male v Vehicle. Fatal. Car made off.
The car that was following the Kill car (we were so PC back then), also FAILED to stop. Taking into consideration the road specs (We like to do this.) The second car must have driven around the body. Actually driven around the fooking body in the road.
Thinking about it as I type it, I am still disgusted and cannot understand how someone could do this (2nd car no skids, so possible not witness)
How can you drive around a person in the road ? You disgust me.
March 12th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Sensei - “I got my mobile and Leatherman”
you were a boy scout too, weren’t you?
March 12th, 2006 at 11:24 am
There’s a documented behaviour known as the Bystander effect. When such an incident has occured everyone assumes that somebody else will have done the decent thing and helped out those in need. Can’t remember any more details - it’s a long time since college!
March 12th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Courage is not taught anymore. The death of heroes means losing the value of heroism, and by implication, of courage. Many would prefer to be the victim getting help, and don’t know how to fill the hero role. Sad.
Our population is too huge, anonymity too seductive, the chance of being called to account too rare to spur many on to proper action. I’m sure those events do haunt those who didn’t help. Those pharmacy employees were angry, because they didn’t like that nagging guilt they felt.
Courageous help comes quietly, and often unnoticed. Angels are usually anonymous.
March 13th, 2006 at 11:35 am
The world is full of f**kwits - Enough said!
I strongly believe that the staff working in this Pharmacy are in the wrong profession - Correct as they are in saying they’re not doctors, they do fall under the “healthcare” title .. thus meaning it is their job to help where help is needed!
By the way, this is the first time I’ve visited this blog!
March 13th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I came off my bike and has a disagreement with Mr. Gutter a year or so ago, causing my collarbone to magically transform itself into several smaller bone-bits. 10 seconds later there was one lady offering to call an ambulance, one lady popping into the nearby corner shop for a bottle of orange juice “for the shock” and a gentleman offering to store what was left of my bike in his nearby flat, so it wouldn’t get nicked.
Decent people still exist.
March 16th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Looks like the good samaritan no longer exists!
Is that how they would react if that was someone they knew or what would they have expected a stranger to do if that was them?
Whatsoever a man sow, that shall he reap!
The Driving Instructor
March 17th, 2006 at 5:07 am
Publish the name of the shop and be hanged. Bastards
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:04 pm
for trish:
yes there is a law in france to do with ‘non-asssitance to person in danger’
March 23rd, 2006 at 5:18 pm
I used to live in a small town and would always offer assistance to anyone who looked like they were in need, with no ill consequences. I carried on doing this when I moved to London; the first three people I offered to help (lying on the ground, with minor bleeding or vomiting) were threatening or asked me for money when I had ascertained that they were okay. I would still instinctively offer help in a serious situation, or where children or old people were involved, but I’m afraid I have learnt to think twice about offering help, where I once would not have hesitated.
March 23rd, 2006 at 5:38 pm
I hope that you’d at least step outside your door and have a look if someone told you there was a dying person outside your shop, though!
March 23rd, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Of course! The point I was trying to make (and circumlocuting terribly) was that the decision to help is not always as easy as it should have been for the chemist.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Just checking
Yeah, there are situations where it can be dangerous to help. I always advise people to be careful or not approach at all if it’s someone slumped in an alley on a dark night or something, but I think everyone was safe here on a busy shopping street in the middle of the day!
March 27th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Were I in your shoes I’d be *sorely* tempted to call them back in my leisure time and tell them exactly what I thought of their spirit of human kindness.
Grr.
March 31st, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Heard a similar story on Radio 1 the other day. Somebody collapsed in the street, and two different pharmacies refused to assist.
I haven’t done any first aid training in about twenty years, but I would still try to assist.
April 19th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Sounds like a messed-up situation. See, in pharmacies, it’s against the law for prescriptions and other medicines marked [P] to be given out without a pharmacist in the shop. In a queued-out shop he (assuming the pharmacist was the he) would have felt under a lot of pressure not to leave. In addition, he may have had physical difficulty leaving, as these shops are often narrow and cramped. If he had to move past a methadone patient he may have felt that impossible - they might have assaulted him, or stolen the methadone while he was away, and he would have been liable and guilty had he died. Two types of folk are often met in pharmacies - methadone patients, who can be aggressive and thieving, and armed robbers. Often these two categories overlap, though not at the same time.
The other possibility is that the pharmacist had left the shop (possibly illegally, if most medicines continue to be given out) to pick up some lunch. If so, that would explain the woman refusing to leave - she would lose her job. Still, someone should have been sent out. Sounds like the shop was packed, and/or had one or more methadone customers there. Staff may have felt physically intimidated - happens if they can’t keep control.
Still, it was totally wrong what they did, or rather didn’t do.
Also - Pharmacists recieve no first aid training during their four years of university. Not sure if they recieve any during their pre-registration year.
April 20th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Brilliant blog. We were called to an A cat in a pharmacy and missed the time as we were so far away. Arriving approx 11 minutes later the poor old gent was cyanosed and very dead, lying in front of the pharmacist and staff having popped in there to pick up his heart medication! When we asked the pharmicist to start CPR while we got trolley, extra kit etc, she took off her shoes, smoothed down her skirt and gave it a whirl - nice try girl but a little late..
Don’t these people watch Casualty??!!
April 20th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I attended a fatal RTC not so long back in my capacity as bobby - several witnesses had stayed to help but the one I ended up speaking to said he hadn’t checked over those involved because ‘it’s not my f**king job’ and then refused to give a statement unless we paid him. I asked him why he had bothered to stop in the first place (oops) and he complained about me. Nuff said.
July 3rd, 2006 at 7:52 pm
As a Pharmacist I am disgusted by this story. The code of Ethics for pharmacists starts of:
Pharmacists’ prime concern, irrepective of their sphere of work, must be for the wellbeing and safety of patients and the public.
It goes on to mention…
Pharmacists must assist persons in need of emergency first aid or medical treatment whether by administering first aid or whether by summoning assistance &/or emegency services.
This quiet clearly states that pharmacists should help people in need of First aid. If they don’t, they break the ethical code and perhaps should consider if they are in the right profession.
Whilst locuming at weekends (i usually work in a hospital) ,I have done CPR on people in the street & stopped varicose veins bleeding! The public generally understand if you can’t serve them for a couple of minutes and they have to wait for their laxatives or methadone cos your trying to save a life. It also makes a nice show on a boring saturday afternoon shopping for them to stand round and watch.
Interestingly pharmacists have to do basic first aid training (usually involving BLS) in their re-reg year although this is a recent developement.
I would certainly put a complaint into the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for both the offensive language & lack of helping a person in need. As people have mentioned, might not have been the Pharmacist, just an assistant or tech but still worth complaining about.
July 26th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I attended a resuscitation course yesterday during which the trainer told us that according to Samaritan Law a person carrying out CPR who injures the patient in the process, eg bruising, broken rib, is protected by this law. I can’t find reference to this anywhere so wonder if any of you has an idea?