Summer is well and truly here and with it brings the range of summertime first aid events. This is my favorite time of the year as no two weekends are ever the same. Last weekend started ordinarily enough with a small football tournament at one of the local colleges in Coventry. It was fairly bog standard, although we did have one job that we had to send in to hospital.
Saturday evening saw the days 2nd duty, this time at Coventry Cathedral. I enjoy duties at the cathedral as it's steeped in history. This time it was the Coventry jazz festival. I always associate jazz with summer, sitting in parks, having a picnic sort of thing. Unfortunately the weather had a big part to play, as it lashed it down with rain. The tent (a really marvelous structure within the cathedral ruins) was less than half full with many people leaving during the interval. Thankfully I had the dry, and relatively warm surroundings of the security office to hide in. With nothing to do, I had a nose around the interesting looking room, which was only accessible by a very narrow spiral staircase. The room had a touch of the 'Da Vinci Code' about it, with a long table, surrounded by chairs. The top chair was obviously different to the others, an had an unusual coat of arms on it. Opposite the table on the wall was a tapestry with the same coat of arms. At the time I thought I'd uncovered the meeting place of some secret society, and in truth I wasn't a million miles away. According to the Cathedral website, that room is used by the cappers guild, who meet to share bread and cheese. So there you go.
Anyway, Sunday saw my third duty of the weekend, and it was a big one. We took the ambulance to the gay pride event in Birmingham. As usual the weather didn't let up, so it was a very cold and wet day. I have to say I didn't know what to expect, but in truth it covered the spectrum of gay culture, from the brash Lilly Savage-alikes, to the ordinary joe bloggs. The whole atmosphere just seemed to be quite relaxed and fun. I suppose in a way it's a shame that there needs to be separate events. In an ideal world it would be everyone straight or gay enjoying themselves at the same events without prejudice. Just my own thoughts.
The duty itself started really quietly, and after we'd followed the procession down, we sat around for a good few hours. The evening saw the effects of alcohol begin to take their toll on the punters. Our first run to hospital was for a leg injury. Nice and straightforward. After that we were rotated back to being second ambo. That meant a chance to grab a bite to eat and catch up with some of the other members on duty. Just as the evening was coming to a close, we got a shout. Unconscious female. It wasn't the first job I'd attended with that description, and I'm 100% sure it won't be the last. However it does cover the entire spectrum from asleep to dead, so we set off on blues to the location. It took a few minutes to locate the casualty, but it took only one look for alarm bells to start ringing. This was an ill casualty. I know it's a cliche, but everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I could see what needed to be done, and in a way felt like one of the training scenarios we practice regularly. The options were weighed up, and we decided that immediate removal to hospital would be best.
So there I am. This is a no sh*t run to hospital which contrary to perceptions isn't something we do all that often. Looking back, I don't think I actually broke the speed limit, the weather was far too bad for that. We got to hospital and it didn't take long for the staff to realise that this was serious case, so it was straight into resus.
I don't know what happened to the patient after that. It's one of the pitfalls that sometimes we find out and sometimes we never know.
