It’s been a very, very strange day.
It started badly at midnight as I was babysitting the replacement of a switch in our London datacenter and it was running over. I didn’t get to sleep until 0300. I did at least have the presence of mind to turn off the alarm clock before I finally went to sleep.
I got up around 1100 and pottered around the house – I was on duty with the first responders this weekend – which started badly. The first call was to a cardiac arrest in the pub about 300yds away. On scene within minutes, the patient looked bad but since CPR was ongoing I had to carry on. Rich arrived on the RRV shortly afterwards and was able to get a definite reading using his defib – asystole. The blood had started pooling and we stopped resuscitation at that point. Strangely, the overriding memories of that incident are that it felt like I was handling a chicken – loose skin over flesh over bone. The other one was the mistakes I made, but that comes with experience.
So after that I had to get some replacement parts – though the defib itself is fine, the pads are single-use, so I had to get some more. Also the defib stores information about each incident which needs downloading. Fortunately there was a training session on for new recruits so I popped over and had a quick chat with the Ambulance officer running the training. He quickly replaced the pads, but didn’t have a cable to download the information – not a problem, since the defib has sufficient memory for several incidents. More paperwork – and I suddenly found myself in front of the class talking about the incident I’d just been to. Following that, I found myself teaching a session on hypothermia – apparently, I’m the expert on this. News to me.
While we were there, we had a call, but then got stood down with no information. Not uncommon – but a few minutes later, we were called again – the RRV had requested our assistance. As it turned out it was a possible CVA that he wanted a hand with and knew that I was on duty. The call was just down the road from my house…but I was over on the wrong side of Caerphilly, so by the time we got there, the crew was already there and loading the patient on board. Back to pick up my car and then I headed home to meet up with Jon who wanted some driving experience in his new car. Before we could head off, we had a call to a lady feeling dizzy and nauseous. I got back just in time to catch the last 15 minutes of the England – Wales rugby match…and to my amazement saw us beat England in Twickenham. First time in 20 years…
Jon and I headed out for a while and on the way back we decided to grab a takeaway. Just as we got out of the car, the phone went – call to the nursing home not half a mile away. I got there just as the RRV was arriving with the other Richard in it and we got that patient ready for the truck before heading back to the Indian to try again. This time we not only managed to buy food but headed home and almost got in the house before a neighbour asked me for help – there was a child with breathing difficulties. After a quick look at him, I suggested they pop him in to see the GP and headed back to the house to eat. Jon headed off then and I managed a few hours of relaxation before our next call – gentleman with chest pains. We headed down and spent some time looking after this chap until the RRV arrived.
I’ve not long got back from that and it looks as though things have calmed down for now. Five more hours to go….
Quite a lot of us were amazed that Wales won that match. & rejoiced that, FINALLY, they seem to be regaining the spirit they had back in the 70s!