Three calls after my fourth Born Before Arrival, I was still sitting there with a grin on my face. It’s not often we get a happy call in Nee Naw Control, usually the best we can hope for is improving a bad situation, so when something good happens, we like to savour the moment.
My bubble was, however, quickly broken.
“It’s my flatmate,” said a male voice, with a thick foreign accent. “I think he’s overdosed…”
Because of his accent, it took almost a minute to get the address correctly, with him spelling out every word. C for Charlie, H for Heroin… Eventually I had the address correct and moved on to the questioning.
“How old is he?”
“Twenty-five”
“Is he conscious?”
“No…” Uh oh!
“Is he breathing?”
“Um… no, I don’t think he is…” Aargh!
I can’t quite describe the sinking feeling you get when you have been struggling to get an address from a caller and you realise that the delay may have cost the patient his life. If only I understood foreign accents better, if only callers could brush up on their English… But of course, there is no point in “if only”s at a time like this.
Since the caller wasn’t entirely sure that his flatmate wasn’t breathing, it was time to crank up the “respiration timer”. This is a useful gadget that we use to determine if a patient is still breathing, or merely having agonal respirations (the dying gasps a patient makes immediately prior to death — these aren’t real breaths, so if that is what is happening, resuscitation should be started). The trouble with using the timer is that you need to time four breaths to get an accurate reading, and most callers are in too much of a panic to concentrate. The conversation usually goes like this:
Me: “I want you to tell me every time s/he takes a breath, starting NOW!”
Typical Caller: “Now… now… he’s kind of gasping.. he had diarrhoea last week… and his tonsils out in 1982…”
Me: “I need you to tell me every time s/he takes a breath, and nothing else. Don’t stop until I tell you.”
Typical Caller: “Now… now… look, I can’t do this! Just send the b*****y ambulance and stop wasting time!”
Fortunately, this caller didn’t do that. In fact, he was eerily calm and compliant. I suspect he had been taking some of whatever put his flatmate into his state, although he later informed me that he didn’t know what kind of drug it was and had just stumbled across him in this state. From timing the breaths, it seemed that the breaths were indeed agonal, so I pressed on with resuscitation. Much to my relief, the language barrier didn’t stop the caller understanding the instructions. We do have an interpreter service (Language Line) but trying to use it for resus usually results in chaos, calamity and ultimately death.
The phone was right by the patient, so I could hear the full gamut of gruesome sound effects:
*Puff* *Hisssss* *Puff!* *Hissssssssss*
*Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk* *Clunk*
*Bluuuuuurgh!!!!* *wipe*
*Puff!* *Hisssss* *Puff!* *Hisssssssss*
When callers are very calm like this one in the face of a “suspended” patient, I am often overcome with a sense of paranoia that the patient isn’t really suspended and that they have misunderstood me, resulting in them leaping up and down on and breaking the ribs of a perfectly well patient. This was particularly strong in this case because the patient was so young, and although the caller’s English seemed perfect except for his accent, maybe he thought I had said something else entirely. Still, I told myself that I had checked several times and that it was much better to break the ribs of a live patient than ignore a dying one.
The ambulance arrived and I proceeded to continually check the log to see what happened next. Eventually, after forty long minutes, the ambulance set off to the nearest hospital on blue lights. He was indeed suspended, and had stayed that way despite the ambulance crew zapping him with the defibrillator, and doing whatever else it is ambulance crews do to prevent suspended patients turning into corpses. Though they were taking him into hospital, his chances were slim, and we later heard that he had been pronounced dead in A+E.
So as the family two miles down the road were cradling their new baby and waiting for the midwife to come and determine its sex once and for all, this young man was saying goodbye to the world forever. He was only the same age as me. What a tragic waste of a life.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:03 pm
It’s the circle of life again isn’t it? Just a shame that the life-out was so young. (not that I am suggesting an old person dying would have been any better)
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Well, “better” might not be the right word, but the death of an old person is sad, but not a horrible tragedy like a twenty-five year old dying. We all have to go some time and when I get a call about an old person who has passed away peacefully at home, I often hope that I’ll go the same way, having lived a long and full life and not have suffered at the end.
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:48 pm
The choices we make in life, we chose a party, had a few beers, he chose that one, someone offered him a bit of something, he took it.
I’ve met people who take cannabis who swear they’ll never touch something stronger. But all the heroin addicts I’ve met started on cannabis, swearing they’d never touch anything stronger.
Sow a thought, reap a deed, sow a deed, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a destiny.
25 and dead, what a waste.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Hatched one and dispatched one!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:02 am
It’s a sad thing for sure Mark, but as I always say to myself when we get such calls, it’s entirely their fault. You did your best. Don’t beat yourself up about it (not that it appears you are).
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.
Don’t do drugs, kids.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:07 am
In response to Klig, shame LAS don’t do Matches.
Mark,
I’m trying to explain, but probably not very well, what I think. Both sets of work were well done, and from what you have said you have done the best you can. Whilst it can be said that people make choices, they do not always do so in full knowledge of the consequences (there is plenty of education available - but it won’t happen to me because ……)
Glad LAS don’t seem to be doing the same as M2MP. All units out
March 24th, 2006 at 12:08 am
Fuck. I hope the newborn who checks in, learns better life lessons than the one who checked out.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:22 am
I spent tonight in the pub with two estate agents, one account executive, one PR girl and two people who are ‘in IT’. You do a bloody amazing job - never forget that. And thanks for doing it so well.
March 24th, 2006 at 2:38 am
Nice to have you back, Mark. Merys is right…the circle of life. However, I know they all hurt. Even the happy ones lay a lot of stress on you while you’re helping them out. Good job , Mark.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Erm, Nige, I have met loads of cannabis smokers who have never taken anything harder, what does that prove? Nothing, that’s what.
All this ’sow a thought’ nonsense, what’s the point of that? So what you are basically saying is ‘if you do hard drugs, there is a good chance something bad will happen’? Such insight!
March 24th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
I agree with you, John. Just because most heroin addicts tried cannabis first, it doesn’t mean that all cannabis users are going to go on to take heroin. It’s logical that anyone who would take heroin would try softer drugs too, but most people are sensible enough to draw a line.
In my opinion cannabis is no worse than alcohol.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
mark
‘In my opinion cannabis is no worse than alcohol’
Tell that to the family of my friend. A heavy cannabis user, he turned psychoti and committed suicide. Cannabis ruined his life and that of his nearest and dearest.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
And how many alcoholics do you think commit suicide? How many lives does alcohol ruin?
March 24th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
That’s why I stick to crack………er jacks. Had you going for a second, eh.
March 25th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Cannabis is no worse than alcohol, except when it comes to driving. Alcohol is very easy to detect and drink drivers can be caught and prosecuted.
It is not as easy to prove a driver is doped up, which means they get away with it and end up killing themselves or someone else.
Why can’t people just stick to chocolate?
March 25th, 2006 at 12:15 am
Chocolate makes you fat. We should all drink only water and eat only fruit and veg.
March 25th, 2006 at 9:37 am
What a waste of life indeed! All in the name of pleasure which turns into addiction.
The Driving Instructor