So there I was, minding my own business, when the sector controller from the North desk came along and waved an ambulance call receipt in front of my nose.
“Remember this one, Mark?”
I racked my brains. A call I’d taken around an hour ago. 24 Fortress Road, N23. 17 year old female having a panic attack. Bells started ringing somewhere in the back of my mind. Oh yes, I remembered it now.
“Do you remember anything out of the ordinary about it?” asked the sector controller.
“Um,” I said, scratching my head. “Well, the caller was a bit of an idiot, but nothing unusual, no.”
The call had gone something like this:
Me: …
Caller: Yes! Right! We need an ambulance here now!
Me: What’s…
Caller: She’s having one of her attacks!
Patient in background: Aargh, ooh, help me!
Me: What kind of attack?
Caller: It’s a panic attack.
Me: And what’s the address?
Caller: 24 Fortress Road, N23. Look man, never mind all this, just get here quick!
Patient in background: I’m dying, I’m dying!
Me: Okay, I need to ask you a few questions, but…
Caller: I ain’t got time! Just send the ambulance!
Me: If you could let me finish… I was going to say that I need to ask you questions, help will be arranged while I’m talking to you.
Caller: She’s dying, she’s dying.
Me: Please try to calm down. She’s having a panic attack, she isn’t dying.
These were the words that would come back to haunt me.
The rest of the call proceeded in much the same manner. I managed to extract the relevant information: she was seventeen, conscious and breathing, and the call was triaged as a category A because the patient was hyperventilating, in other words, not breathing normally. This is usually the way with panic attacks and I have always thought it was a bit of a waste of an ambulance because there is nothing an ambulance can do to help other than be nice and calm the patient down, which is something anyone can do. Still, off it went and I gave it no further thought. Until…
“So go on…” I asked the sector controller. “What was strange about it?”
“We’ve just blued a fifty-five year old female from that address,” the sector controller explained. “Suspended.”
“Oh my god!” I exclaimed, clapping a hand over my mouth. “I’ve killed her!”
“I’m sure it’s not your fault,” said the sector controller. “What did they say on the phone?”
I told him and he looked as confused as I felt.
I spent an anxious hour watching the movements of the ambulance that conveyed the patient, and as soon as they arrived back on station, I gave them a call.
“You know that suspended you just did…” I ventured.
“Oh god, what now?” said the ambulance man, alarmed.
“No, nothing!” I said. “I took the call and I just wondered how on earth a 17 year old having a panic attack turned into a 55 year old suspended?”
“God knows!” he said. “It was a madhouse in there, and we came in to find her lying in the hallway, looking pretty dead, so we didn’t stop to ask questions. But there were definitely no panicking 17 year olds there. There was just her and a man, they’d both been on the drink and there was evidence of drug taking too, so I think that’s what did it. Her lungs were full of fluid; even with the suction we couldn’t get anywhere.”
“I’m really worried that I messed up the call,” I told him.
“I don’t think it’s your fault; he wasn’t on this planet” he said. “We’ve left him with the police.”
“How is the patient?” I ventured.
“Dead,” said the ambulance man solemnly.
Despite the unfavourable outcome for the patient, I did feel rather better after speaking to the crew. It’s obvious there was a lot more to this call than what met the eye, and nothing which could have been guessed from the call.
I tell you what, though — that’s the last time I tell a patient that they’re not dying!
March 24th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
Man, I don’t know how you manage to keep your cool through panicked callers barking at you to begin with. (Yeah, I hope I never have to find out how it feels to be that caller….) On top of that you’re supposed to be clairvoyant? I don’t think so.
March 24th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
There is a good chinese proverb I live by.
Every 999 call is a lie until you get there.
March 24th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Oooh.
Bet that was a heart-sinking moment!
I’m glad it wasn’t your fault.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
No, don’t see any way that could be your fault. You can only act on what information you’re given. You do a good job.
March 25th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Mark you did your best as you always do, and I’m sure if you had been given the right information, the patient might have had a chance.
The Driving Instructor
March 26th, 2006 at 7:18 am
What The Driving Instructor said.
March 26th, 2006 at 7:52 am
ditto
March 26th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Jeez, Im amazed *you* didn’t have a panic attack, Mark! I concur with the Driving Instructor. You did the right thing for a supposed panic attack - and this is coming from someone who has panic attack disorder and agoraphobia. Although it sounds like the caller was er, not on this planet, I still can never understand why people call an ambulance for a panic attack - for me, seeing those green jumpsuits would just make things worse. (no offence to any ambo staff!)
The thing I find most helpful is ‘grounding’. Something like, my husband talking to me calmly (which he is very practiced at) or forcing myself to think of something else entirely. If I’m in a shop and I start feeling panicky, I read the label on the nearest tin of soup or whatever. I also taught myself to count in japanese. Sounds mad? Well, they say you should count slowly, but we can all count without really thinking about it, so I made myself count in a language where I have to really think about it. That way, the thoughts of “I’m going to die” are superceded by “ichi, ni, san shi…” Mind, I’m getting good at japanese, so I may look at russian or something..
It’s worth pointing out that the “I’m going to die” thing is *very* real. Even if the rational side of your brain is saying “don’t worry, it’s just a panic attack” there’s this huge part yelling “oh my god I’m going to die, I can’t breathe, my chest hurts…” over and over again.
Sorry, I’m going on (as I tend to do on this subject) so I’ll shut up now. As I said, in the circumstances, and given the information you had, you did the right thing. If it was a panic attack, she would probably have calmed down and be tired and a bit sheepish when the ambo crew turned up.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Should you really be posting the address of the caller? Perhaps those that didn’t die at that residence might not want it published all over the web?
I’m not sure wether you’ve changed it, but it would seem to be exceedingly unprofessional to post such, what I would classify as sensitive, information in a public forum such as this blog.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Alex
Go and read the “About Nee Naw” page before jumping to conclusions.
Any Emergency Services blogger who was stupid enough to print confidential information would soon find themselves an ex-Emergency Services blogger.
According to Google Maps, the only Fortress Road in the country is in Suffolk, well out of the LAS catchment area
March 26th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Perhaps he needs to start making the fake names and addresses more obviously silly so that people will catch on.
March 26th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Bloody hell! There isn’t even such a place as London N23! I wonder if I will ever be able to make a post without someone leaving a stupid comment like that as if I am so stupid and insensitive that I would give out patient’s addresses willy nilly! Luc, you are right, the next post will give the patient’s address as “999 Sesame Street, Timbuctoo” or possibly “address removed as blog readers too dim to understand that I use fake ones”. Grr!
Grumpy, hungover Mark.
March 26th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Of course if Alex is offended by your response Mark, s/he could always call for an ambulance to deal with the post traumatic stress disorder. You never know, you could take the call and then you’ll be able to tell us all where Alex lives and the full details of the case.
March 26th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Mark, stick to your usual policy. These are serious matters and a silly address would bring the reader up short. Your writing is good, don’t be swayed.
Sorry to hear about your experience, though. There could have been a 17-year-old there, you’ll never know. Someone who scarpered before the ambulance crew got there, determined not to get caught in a flat full of paraphernalia and a dead 55-year-old.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
I wonder if Alex is the same silly bugger who is banning the police and fire/ems blogs?
March 27th, 2006 at 5:15 am
Er Mark, how would anyone outside of London know that there isn’t a place called N23?
I totally agree with the driving instructor, if they had not been off their trolleys then you could have helped the ambo service with more info, however all you can do is pass on the info you have. Bad info from them had lead to a bad result, over here we don’t shoot the messengers ya know.
March 27th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Domino, yut yee sum sayee m low chut bah gow sup.
Cantonese.
On (or close to) the subject of disguised addresses, I’ve lost the URL now but I once saw a commenter call a blogger a liar because they couldn’t find the blogger’s workplace (”Saltmine & Co.”) in the phone book. So you can’t win either way.
March 27th, 2006 at 8:35 am
(eldrich) I’m not from London and had no idea if there was an N23 or not - I just assumed Mark had given a bogus address because that’s what you *do*. Even if there is an N23, and even if there’s a Fortress Road there, I would assume that’s *not* where the call came from!
March 27th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Er Mark, how would anyone outside of London know that there isn’t a place called N23?
It would take them about five seconds to look it up on the internet, rather than steaming in and blathering on about “exceedingly unprofessional” and “sensitive, information” (sic) in a patronising and annoying manner!
March 27th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Dear Mark:
A) Completely agree with Driving Instructor. You did a great job, as usual. We have the same problem here, but unfortunately we did not have Lies Detector, do you??
B) Do you need some Spanish adresses to make it clear they are fake??
March 28th, 2006 at 10:45 am
You can’t help it if your callers give you false information. Granted, sometimes they reach hospital and they still lie to us. I don’t know how they expect us to treat them.
March 28th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Alex, you’re such a twit! Anyone with half a brain would check if there’s a disclaimer before launching into condescending and ill-informed ramblings like the ones you amuse us with above.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Used to be in comms myself. Three years on the road now.Bald as a coot now after pulling all my hair out. Its a thankless task whenwe go to junkies and alkies. Saqme for you up there. Keep doing what you do mate.
April 24th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Sounds to me like Alex is management!
September 18th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
It is difficult for anyone who has never suffered a panic attack to understand how devastating they can be.
But please remember - the feeling of dying, or collapsing, or fainting, or whatever it is for the particular person, is very real at the time. However rational and level-headed someone is most of the time, all normal sense is overridden by the catastrophic thoughts.
Please don’t dismiss sufferers as time-wasters or hypochondriacs, they may genuinely think they need medical attention. Can you imagine what it is like to live with this kind of fear? Horrible.
For anyone out there who is suffering from panic, anxiety, agoraphobia or similar, there is a helpful charity called No Panic, freephone 0808 808 0545, http://www.nopanic.org.uk.
I have great admiration for you Mark - you don’t have an easy job!