Prince Edmund: They're coming! Run for the hills!
Baldrick: No, my lord! They're coming from the hills!
Prince Edmund: Run away from the hills! Run away from the hills! If you see the hills, go the other way!
- ~ -
Priority ones are being sent out to crews north of us, a dime a dozen, and we are on a low priority job. Then again, the familiar silencer, a long beeeeep, gets sent through the radio, telling the crews that a high priority job has just come in, but has not yet been assigned. "This is us, I can feel it" I tell my crewmate...I sense that he is also on the edge of his seat, hoping to get a more exiting job. This job has the potential, I know it.
BINGO!
It's us, we're closest. We light the night with our darkness piercing strobes and oscillating rotators, and part the traffic with the deafening screech of our siren. The engine roars as my crewmate, who is driving tonight, accelerates with full throttle. Water is everywhere, it's pouring from the heavens above, it's below us, our tyres splashing left and right whilst we crash through huge puddles.
But hold on, this job is a relatively standard one. Chest pain, although our patient is only in her late 30's. Better than a transfer, and you just never know.
The radio comes to life again. There has been an accident on the freeway, a crew is sent out on a one. Hmm, methinks, I wouldn't mind doing something like that. Then another crash on the freeway, another crew is sent out to investigate. Hmm, methinks again. I want to do freeway prangs. One of those jobs turns out to be big, read about it here. And I get stuck travelling the other direction to a relatively 'standard' job. Enter Blackadder from above. Ah well, the patient had genuine chest pain (cardiac or not I do not know), I did my bit, patient felt better en route, and I managed to insert a few bad jokes on the way, so I kept myself amused as well :-)
The other jobs were nothing out of the ordinary, they were:
- Mental health transfer. Patient was quiet, and the nurse was also a cycling enthusiast, great talking to him.
- Regular caller. I had been there before. Patient always claims problems with his heart, and depending on the experience and insight of the calltaker it is either prioritised as chest pain, getting a lights and sirens approach, or as a low priority. This time it was a low priority, so we could finish our dinner. En route I joked to my paramedic that my ECG might even still be hanging on his wall - I printed one off roughly four months ago and stuck it on the wall for other crews to see. And indeed, it was still hanging there. Together with another five print outs. So I added to the collection, patient refused transport, and off we went.
- Some job, got stood down for next job
- Chest pain, read above
- Post assault, brothers fighting. More emotional...well more alcohol than anything else really. Left in care of dad.
- 0430 in the morning, we drive for 17 minutes to a woman who has severe back pain and cannot get out of bed. Why she wanted to get out of bed at such an ungodly hour eluded me. I shall never find out, because we got stood down and so we headed back in to the depot for some more well needed sleep.
That was my third night shift in a row; I swapped shifts with a fellow student colleague of mine. Right now I am awake, going allright - I have reached the stage of "stuff it, who needs sleep anyway". The previous nights were absolutely crackers, no sleep whatsoever, so last night came as a welcome change.
And if you are reading this MP, thanks for the shift swap, I think you owe me one...or at least four hours of working!
