The Lazarus phenomenon – paramedic friend or foe The initial excitement has long passed, your own excited, racing heart replaced by the weariness and aching back that comes from over thirty minutes of vigorous cardiopulmonary resuscitation. That fatigue has been […]
Continue ReadingMy great idea fell from the sky. Literally. It wasn’t spontaneous. Well in a way it was of course, every idea has to have that first spark moment. But this one was nearly ten years in the making. I was […]
Continue ReadingCan you help my mum please? There was really only two options for this callout. ‘Child caller,’ the dispatcher had said. It was either a hoax or someone in a really bad way. Normally the hoax callers like to talk […]
Continue ReadingIt’s my fault my brother’s dying He was trying bravely not to cry. That was a task too great for a five year old boy with a broken leg. A boy who had just been struck by a car. So […]
Continue ReadingWhat’s Christmas day without Christmas dinner? The radio suddenly blared, its tone rudely summoning our minds back into work mode. From reflex, I moved to press pause on the remote control beside me then grunted. This was the television and […]
Continue ReadingJust close your eyes……for the last time We stood outside the now smouldering house, safely back but with prime view. Only minutes earlier flames had been leaping from the front bedroom window and through the roof. In rapid time one […]
Continue ReadingI didn’t notice you were there too I was busy. Sitting in the clinician chair in the ambulance call centre there seemed to be an endless backlog of hospital enquiries, urgent bookings and other tasks all seeking my attention. Requests […]
Continue ReadingSorry, I did say that didn’t I I knelt before the man, intravenous needle in my hand. His colour was ashen grey and sweat poured from him as if it were a spray bottle I held. His free hand rubbed […]
Continue ReadingOh no it’s you again Jim came into my life in the worst possible way. I spent a day getting to know him and his wife in a hospital delivery ward. At the end of it, his infant, his first […]
Continue ReadingDon’t forget the new guy The delivery ward was busy. It was a major hospital and today several mother’s to be had all arrived within a few hours of each other in various stages of labour. My luck was in. […]
Continue ReadingWell that was more than weird Resting back in the front seat of the ambulance, I peered solemnly into the pizza box again. It was torture not to begin eating it so I sought solace by picking off a small […]
Continue ReadingLook at me, no tears With the ambulance bed remade with clean linen, I pushed the trolley back into the truck and locked it in place. Frowning, I took in the mess of discarded waste, used equipment and empty drug […]
Continue ReadingA night at the races One of my favourite shifts over the years is attending sporting events. In particular, the football was always popular. So too was the horse racing and ‘the trots’. This was a Saturday afternoon and the […]
Continue ReadingWhat really lies within? Frank was the most racist person I had ever met. He didn’t swear all the time but he always added such language to his many crude comments. People seemed to just accept that this was how […]
Continue ReadingPlease just say something Even from the front seat of the ambulance you could see that this crash was a bad one. Two cars becoming one for a brief instant on an open rural road. Head on they had met. […]
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