Anniversary

Day shift: Two calls; one left at home; one by ambulance.

Stats: 1 dementia pt; 1 emotional person.

Five years after the terrorism of 7/7, Londoners remembered those who lost their lives and those who suffered otherwise. Again, a low-key kind of memoriam was going to be carried out, mostly away from the areas that were actually affected. The plaque in Tavistock Square is gathering floral tributes but only a few will stand before it or say words like they used to.

After a long, quiet start, the first call of the day took us (my student is with me again for the next few shifts) to the south on a mercy mission that had absolutely nothing to do with accidents or emergencies. It was a social issue that could have been sorted out by the family.

The 90 year-old woman who called saying she was ‘frightened’ had dementia and didn’t know where she lived. She’d been left on her own but her family lived above her. It took me a while to get in contact with her daughter and she explained that the lady wasn’t normally left alone for too long. That was just as well because she needed to be on her home oxygen but wasn’t; she’d unplugged herself.

We left her in the care of her grandson and advised caution with her in the future because she is very likely to wander off and get herself into trouble.


A last minute call (ironic considering how slow it’s been all day) took us to a man in his fifties who had collapsed in his car. His son was with him and had reported his father ‘fainting’ but he hadn’t – he was just upset about a phone call he’d received. We left this to the crew when they arrived. Again, this type of call has no bearing whatsoever on us as an emergency service.

Be safe.