Stories, comments and Frustrations of an NHS Student Ambulance Paramedic

I was just reading a post over at Medic999’s blog where he talks about an interesting job that he went to, not interesting because of the events that led up to the 999 call or the interventions that he used, but because of the person that he met.  This has reminded me of a job that I attended which was similar in the respect that the job was interesting because of something we saw….

This very unusual painting was displayed in pride of place on the gentleman’s wall along with News Paper clippings and photos, but this painting was one that stood out to my crew mate….

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I have recently seen a patient that confused me, two of my colleagues and a number of ED Doctors, so what do you think is wrong with this patient….?

…..responder on scene about 3 minutes ahead of you. “The patient is presenting with shortness of breath, bi-laterally bubbly chest sounds and maybe a wheeze.  I’m thinking either chest infection or LVF (Left Ventricular Failure)”

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Emergency call to an old peoples home nearby, elderly male with alzeihmers, threatening to smash the place up….

…what made them decide an ambulance would be a good resource to send???

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The first Episode of the Chronicles of EMS (COEMS) was launched last night in San Fransicsco and online.  So as all the people at the launch party were Tweeting that they were on their way home from the party, I got up and watched it online.

If you have no idea what COEMS is you can find out here or by watching this short video…

Chronicles of EMS – The purpose from Thaddeus Setla on Vimeo.

If you like the look of this….

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Its been a while since my last post, however I have been doing my final set of clinical placements and am due back on the road this week.

One of my placements was on a Paediatric ward at a far away hospital.  It was during this placement that I realised that I couldn’t work on a ward like this.  It wasn’t long ago when I didn’t know which way up to hold a small child, but after having one of my own I realised that it wasn’t that difficult to figure out. But I just don’t think that I could handle the psychological trauma of working on these wards…..

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I started my theatre placements today which was a very strange experience. It made me feel like I was a vulture, circling, waiting for my next victim patient…..

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“You were quick!” says the very pale looking man who answered the door.  He looked like the person that we were calling to see – a male in his 70’s who is complaining of shortness of breath with hemoptysis, hence the small amount of blood on his top lip coming from his nose and mouth.

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Recently I had an Epiphany….

a Sudden Realisation that I was going to be a Paramedic!

We were called to a nursing home to a male with a report BM of 1.8 (this is a low blood sugar level that could result in unconsciousness)….

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Following my blog post Did you Choose Well….?

A blog reader sent me the photo below about how they were advertising the Choose Well programme

And I thought I would share it with you!

“Carers Leave Patient on Floor for over an Hour Illegally!” now that would be an interesting headline in a news paper, although we know it will more likely be “Ambulance takes an Hour to attend to Terminally ill man!”….

No Lift Policy

So why might we see a headline like this…..

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