Busking opera

Glasgow: a man walks into a baker's shop, points to an item on display and says "Is that a donut, or a meringue?" The baker looks at the item, looks at the man and replies "Naw, yer right. It's a meringue".

Three emergencies and one green2. Three conveyed and one assisted.

I attended a woman who had allegedly been assaulted in the course of a robbery at the donut shop where she works. It happened in the centre of town, in broad daylight and the thief made off with a paltry £5 after shoving the woman so that he could reach into the till. She had no injuries but was badly shaken up, as you can imagine. This was given on the MDT as 'shock' and therefore the reason to call an ambulance - also the reason for a blue light response. The word shock is commonly misused to describe an emotional state, rather than its proper description for a lack of perfusion to the body's tissues.

I took the woman to hospital so that she could recover from her ordeal. Only then did I discover that the person who allegedly stole the money had been in his 60's, confused and somewhat disturbed (he had accused the staff of various things out of the blue). He sounded mentally ill to me and that diminished the crime somewhat. I know, he could have been just as dangerous and its not nice to experience that sort of threatening behaviour but its a distance from a teenage thug climbing over the counter with malice.

The shift before this had been reasonably quiet; the weather being a factor - snow, sleet, sunshine, snow...more snow. Global warming, here it comes.

I attended a young lady who had fainted on the underground (on the train) and was now recovering in the station office. London Underground staff are very good, generally speaking, at dealing with first aid problems and will do all they can, including shutting down the platform, to help. I have had to resuscitate a number of people whilst trains were coming in and unloading passengers around me. Having the staff shut down a section makes the job easier.

Anyway, the young lady recovered perfectly well and I took her to hospital so that she could rest and be checked out before she travelled again - just in case.

Then off I went to deal with a 2 year old who had fallen, sustaining 'head injuries'. When I arrived on scene I was greeted by three single mums and their broods, all contained in a tiny little front room in a tiny little flat...on the top floor (where else?). The child in question stared up at me as I walked in and greeted them. He had a split lip. Even the nurse at the receiving hospital had a go at the mother for calling an ambulance for this. Personally, I wasn't bothered. If I can extend the courtesy to picking up drunks on a Friday night, I can smile and be pleasant for a mother who hasn't got a clue. Anyway, the sight of the blood and nagging doubts about the degree of the child's injury may have prompted her to call. Or maybe her friends made her do it. Or maybe she doesn't have a car and can't afford a taxi. Did I mention that the hospital was a five minute bus ride away?

For the the last few hours of my shift I did a service run and didn't carry out any patient care at all. Only in the last hour did I have to rush to someone's aid. A grazed pair of knees in South London. She had been running for a bus, both arms laden with the week's (day's?) shopping and she fell, landing heavily on her knees. The Community Police Service officers who were on scene insisted that an ambulance be called to assess the damage. Hmmm. I arrived, I assessed, I cancelled any other resource and I bundled her into a taxi and she went home with a smile on her face and a couple of scratches on her pins.

My time on the car has been extended again and I am hoping to stay on it but that will be up to the powers that be. With Summer just around the corner (if it doesn't keep snowing), I am looking forward to my short periods of down-time on stand-by. In one of the rare bursts of sunshine today I stood beside the car on Trafalgar Square and watched a slim, red high-heeled opera singer busking for money. She sang beautifully and was probably (I thought) between jobs at the moment. It was the most pleasant sound I had heard that day. I didn't give her any money though - I didn't have any.

Be safe.