Soaked

I wet my trousers today. I was washing the FRU and the brush/hose connection sprayed cold water all over me. I had to start my shift with a damp outlook and a sunny disposition. I tried to make it to my station so that I could dry off properly but, despite asking them nicely, my colleagues in EOC thought I might want to attend a chest pain in Chinatown first. So I arrived and penguin walked my way over to a patient with no chest pain and LOTS of alcohol in his system. Very funny.

By the time I got to my station I had already dried off naturally.

All the calls are RED because I am working on the CS(Charlie Sierra) callsign, as I always do at night. There are usually three of us running around Central and South London - all CS and all attending emergency calls only, though they don't always turn out to be emergencies.

I was off to a 5 month old male who had DIB and got cancelled before I had gathered any head of steam for the 4.5 mile trip (FRED is out there!). Then, on my way back from that jaunt, I saw a stupid drunk female stagger into the middle of the road, in front of a taxi which was just ahead of me, with a wooden pallet in her hands. She couldn't see where she was going and walked up the road waving the pallett ahead of herself. The taxi had to brake hard to avoid hitting her and I put on my lights so that she would clear off. It worked, she saw the blue flashing lights, obviously thought it was the police and took herself and her wooden friend to the pavement. She dumped her new acquaintance next to the 7/7 memorial plaque (nice touch) and scarpered - in as much as you can scarper when you are that drunk.

South of the River to meet a group of teenagers whose 20-odd year old mate was lying on the pavement, very drunk and suffering the effects of a dodgy ecstacy tablet. He bought it from a 'geezer in the street', allegedly. I was on my own and there had been no ambulance despatched yet. The guy was in and out of consciousness but didn't seem to be in trouble. When he was conscious, he was a pain in the neck and his cousin told me he could be violent, so I kept an arms length when he was shouting and vomiting. When he was unconscious, he was quite charming. A nicer bloke you couldn't hope to meet.

The police arrived and asked if I needed help. I told them I was okay and that the guy, and his mates, were no trouble. The police left me to it and I called Control for an update on the ambulance. I was in a busy street with these people and it wasn't the nicest part of town. Still no ambulance. Then Mr. E gets very annoying and becomes a lot more aggressive (verbally anyway), so I ask the FRU desk to send the police back. The guy kept getting up and falling straight back down again, mostly onto his head. He was big and heavy and there was no way I was getting under him to stop his dead weight, so he hit the pavement a couple of times. His cousin and his girlfriends dealt with him.

When the police got back and calmed the guy down (kinda), I asked again for an ETA on the ambulance but was told there were none to spare, so I made an executive decision. The guy was conscious enough to walk and, with the help of the police officers and his cousin, I had him bundled into the back of my car. It looked like a street kidnapping. I had the cousin and one police officer in the back with him and I drove on lights and with a police escort to the hospital. All too dramatic for one drunk idiot but needs must and I got there in 3 minutes. I had been on scene with an ever more aggressive and potentially violent man for over 30 minutes.

We got him into hospital, with additional help from one of my colleagues, and he went straight to a cubicle and slept. I think he may have cracked a rib when he hit the pavement on his third or fourth swan dive but I'm not sure.

Back at Leicester Square on stand-by and I get a call just around the corner to an assault. The man has had his nose punched and its bleeding a little, Nothing to be done really. He had allegedly been caught urinating in a restaurant doorway and the two members of staff who witnessed it took exception, as you would. They asked him to stop and he (allegedly) became abusive and violent, punching oone of them in the face and running off. I hope his little man was safely stowed away and that he had shaken it properly prior to that event.

Just before I went to that call, an American man staggered up to the car, leaned in the window (it was open) and said "Take me to my hotel". He obviously thought I was a taxi. Not only that but he must have thought I was the world's first psychic taxi service.

I went back over the bridge to treat a 2 year-old male suffering an acute severe asthma attack. He was breathing with some difficulty and had been like this for over two hours before the parents decided to call an ambulance. Children compensate extremely well and so they may look fine while they have such an attack but they will deteriorate rapidly and it will be too late. I have cared for a number of dying asthmatic children over the years. It is so easy to be lulled by them.

This child was still active and orientated but he was using his abdomen a lot more than normal to breathe. I gave him 2.5mg nebulised Salbutamol, followed by 0.25mg Ipatroprium. He responded after 10 minutes and his breathing became less of a struggle, although his very audible wheeze was still hanging around. I handed him over to the ambulance crew and he was virtually bouncing around enjoying himself with the female paramedic. Its good that the treatment worked so well but you really want your handover to reflect the need for such treatment and with him smiling and chatting now, It looked like I made the whole thing up!

I saw a BMW with the number plate 'Y IRAQ' rolling around the West End. I couldn't get a photo for you unfortunately because it is still illegal to use a camera whilst driving. I also saw a straw-haired and youngish man wandering around the Square telling the pigeons off at 4am. The pigeons looked concerned. They must have been because a whole gang of them gathered in a corner to talk about this guy. I know, I was there.

My last call came in at 6am and it was to a female with abdominal pain. I was behind the ambulance when we arrived on scene and went in to see if I was needed. The woman was in agony and it looked and sounded like a Liver-related problem. I couldn't give her morphine because her blood pressure was way too low, so she got fluids to sort that out. She couldn't use the entonox the crew offered because it was too painful to breathe in. The hospital was only 2 minutes away, so we took her there as quickly as possible.

Oh and the water sprinkling system in Leicester Square gardens is rubbish. It sprays water onto the paved area, making it slick and soaking passers-by. The potential for drowning an unsuspecting drunk lies therein but two young lads saw this as an opportunity to start their very own mini-Olympic event - landwater skating. Until they fell on their backsides.

Be safe.