Yesterday, from a tweet by insomniacmedic, I was linked to a blog post by Buckman. He talks at length about the foolishness of some patients who refuse the care they so desperately need and the knock-on costs of the associated palliative care as they die. It’s a post and a subject that stirs deep emotions […]
A few months ago I walked into my first St John Ambulance evening in Cardiff. Last week I was a member of a 2-man St John crew on an ambulance helping out the Ambulance service on a 12-hour shift on New Year’s Eve. It’s been a very fast and steep learning curve to get here […]
At around 1700 Monday night I had a text message – contingency plans were in place to assist the ambulance service, could I crew a vehicle? So after work, I grabbed some food and ironed my uniform before de-snowing the car and heading into Llanishen. Once I got out of our village the roads were […]
Continue reading about Oh, the weather outside is frightful!
Today is Black Friday. Most people won’t know and won’t care what that means, but if you work in or volunteer with the emergency services and you’re on duty tonight – you’re probably either sleeping in preparation or getting your stuff ready. Black Friday is traditionally the last Friday before Christmas. It’s the day that […]
Back in October of last year, I applied to join South Wales Police as a special constable. Thigns kinda came to a grinding halt over Christmas when the process stopped. It dragged on for a few months and the rumour I had from friends in the force was that all recruitment was on a hold […]
I can’t remember my first Mountain Rescue job. I remember a search for a missing person while I was still training, but it’s lost in a blur of memories of trying to work out how to search for a missing person. I remember my first casualty, having chased her over the mountain all night, giving […]
Some of you (well, quite a few of you probably) will be aware that I’ve applied to South Wales Police to be a Special Constable. I’ve managed to get to interview stage and by the end of next week I hope I’ll know whether I’ve got to the next stage. I’ve had a few people […]
The past few weeks have been mostly unbroken by shrill beeping of the pager with the exception of the regular Thursday night tests. That is, until Saturday. And it’s been a bizarre series of callouts. After doing my Ambulance shift on Saturday, I headed up to Aberystwyth. Sean and I headed out to a Greek […]
Continue reading about You wait ages for one and then a whole bunch come along at once!
Ok, so it’s not that impressive, but it was a busy shift today. 4 calls, one mountain rescue callout. The shift started off quiet with no calls from Ambulance control until Saturday morning, meaning that I could get a decent night’s sleep. Of course, a lie in was out of the question as the phone rang […]
I’ve been rather apathetic about my blogging recently, sorry about that. I had a pretty busy week last week, including a search for a misper in Mountain Ash on Thursday which left me exhausted for Friday. Friday night was on shift with the first responders right through until Saturday night and what a busy shift […]