'Male, collapsed in street – cannot see if he is breathing'.
Once more I found myself speeding towards a drunk in the street. It's *always* a drunk in the street, except of course on the one occasion when we don't whizz to scene – then they will be dead.
The Sod's Law of collapsed or deceased patients.
Like many of the drunk calls, we also had the information that 'caller will not approach patient', of course not, because the 'possibly dead' person is drunk, smelly, and possibly violent. That, after all, is why we are called to wake them up and move them on.
In this case however, it was much more reasonable, the caller was a CCTV operator.
So we rolled up and found our man snoring gently in the middle of the pavement. Hopping over the fence between us and the patient I went up to him and woke him up.
The man was apologetic (or at least I think he was apologetic, but then sheepish smiles and a bowed head are pretty universal despite the patient not speaking English). He then walked off to catch a train.
I looked around to see which CCTV camera had 'caught' him, and spotting the only one I could see I gave the camera a thumbs up, and then mimed drinking from a bottle.
The operator obviously got the message as the camera nodded up and down in acknowledgement.
I'm inclined to ask – mainly thru long suffering experience of this sort of call – whether the CCTV operator actually activated a police response to this incident. Or did he/she expect LAS to deal with this??
I have no idea – but probably not…
You are going to really miss those calls aren't you Brian!!!!
Hey there Brian, I just wanted to say congratulations on your new job!I also wanted to say thank you, your blog about the LAS has been a brilliant read. I discovered it as I was applying to the LAS about year ago, and it was a brilliant insight into just what I was getting myself into, as its hard to know whats behind all the smoke and daggers and glamourisation of the role you otherwise see through the media etc. I still applied! and I'm an sp2 now in fulham, been out a little while, and have kept reading not least because your writing style is hilarious! but also because its hard to know who does what in this organisation sometimes, or if you had anything to say who would want to listen. Being a relief is like being a number, a blob on the resources sheet, faces floating in and out of station and peoples names you cant remember…. so whether you intended it or not, your blog has been a bit of a peer to me, (with constructive ideas for change not just the bitching and whinging i hear on station), and someone to look up to through it all, so THANK YOU, and very best wishes for your new deserved role!
That's better than the left-right-left-right-center pan.”Tsk tsk. I expected better. Go to your room
and think about what you've done.”
Funnily enough, I've just posted something related on my blog that happened today (sorry, that's now yesterday). http://ambulanceamateur.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/psst/My patient wasn't really a danger to anyone but himself, but he needed seeing home.
We attended a 'collapse' in a doorway the other evening, some well meaning member of the public standing nearby, mobile phone in hand. I took one look, oh yes, a frequent flyer, a well known user of the laughing juice. So, what are we to do ? He doesn't wish to go to hospital and Plod don't want to join the party. If we leave him there some other well meaning member of 'Jo Public' will call us again. So we encourage him to join us, move him to a 'place of safety' and dump him in the waiting room of the nearest A & E, where he can make a nuisance of himself and later be removed by Plod.Tax payers money being well spent ! ? Discuss.
Respect to ambulance crews, seriously, I take my hat off to you all and say a big thank you for what you do.
Great! I like the idea of the CCTV Camera in your post!