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Live blog: Ambulance diary – on the front line

By Chris Jefferies
January 8, 2010 at 9:00 am

I’ve blogged previously about how I’ve been involved in providing support to the NHS ambulance service. Our ambulances, crewed by qualified volunteers, have been responding to emergency calls and helping with patient transfers. Now the festive season is over, this support was meant to finish. However, the recent heavy snowfall as led to us being called upon again to support the statutory services.

Today, I’m heading out on an eight hour shift with one of our Land Rover 4×4 ambulances. These specially adapted vehicles carry all the equipment a conventional ambulance would, and have the advantage of being able to reach casualties where a normal road vehicle would struggle.

During the shift, I’ll be updating this blog post with our activities and any emergency calls we receive. We’ll be able to check this post during our shift, so feel free to leave us a comment!

08:16 GMT: Hello. We’ve just signed on with ambulance control for our shift. We’re currently sitting in Guildford on standby awaiting our first call. Its quite chilly outside!

09:20 GMT: First call of the shift. We’re heading to Farnham to backup a conventional ambulance with our 4×4 vehicle. Conditions on the road are very icy, we’ve already helped a few stranded motorists.

09:48 GMT Update on last call, its been upgraded to an emergency. Female casualty with severe vomiting and dehydration.

11:15 GMT: We’ve now just handed over our first patient of the day! Our 4×4 vehicle was sent to Farnham to help another crew who were stuck. They had managed to reach the patient, but were unable to bring their vehicle close enough. We managed to make our way up a rather steep hill and reach them. Our patient was suffering from a nasty infection and was badly dehydrated. So, we wasted no time in transporting her to hospital.

The paramedics on scene were really great full for our help. One said to us; “Without the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and various 4×4 clubs we’d be really stuck. Thanks guys!“

12:05 GMT: Next call has come in for someone suffering from chest pains. We’re en-route now.

13:10 GMT: Bill, our last patient, had been suffering from chest pain for a few days. He also had a history of breathing problems and was on various medication. We made sure he was stable and then popped him off to the hospital which was just around the corner.

We’ve been given another job now by ambulance control. We’re going to a local care home to pick up an elderly diabetic lady and transfer her into hospital for tests. The conditions outside are really icy still – as shown by the long line of people we saw at hospital waiting for an x-ray!

15:00 GMT: Mary, our last patient, was an elderly lady suffering from a suspected internal bleed. She’d been checked out by an on-call doctor who advised that she be admitted to hospital. We made her comfortable and then transported her to the medical assessment unit at a local hospital.

16:04 GMT: Ambulance control has just stood us down. Thanks for reading everyone, it was a good shift as we were able to assist several people. A job well done!

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Comments (14) »

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Tags: 4x4, 999, ambulance support, emergency response, First aid, heavy snow, Land Rover, snow, volunteer

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Emergencies, First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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