Third Manning

Hi all, sorry it has been a while, been far too busy at work!

So as the title suggests, I went out "Third Manning" with an ambulance crew at my local station... The day started with me arriving at 07:30hrs, ready for the 08:00hrs start, I was preparing myself for the 12 hour shift ahead of me...

My mentors for the day were Terry (Paramedic for a long time) and Danny (Technician of 3yrs)... Now these two don't usually work together as a crew, but as operational demands, demand they were put as a crew!

So off to the van for today... It wasn't one of the brand-spanking new ambo's, but one step behind... Still bright yellow, but with the addition of the tail lift (for stretchers)... I was given a tour of the van, saw all of the drugs, all of the interesting stuff for saving lives!

So the day got off to a quiet start, we was placed on standby down by the local pier at about 09:40hrs - quite a pleasant spot, tide just in, 1 guy fishing... (few jokes made) we was there until about 11:50 then we was asked to return back to station, no sooner did we go to the loo and made a drink did the radio go off, asking us to go to an Age Concern centre - The call came in as unconscious/fall - Not knowing what to expect we ran on blues and two's took us about 3 minutes, we was there so fast that control didn't even give us an update! How’s that for the government target!!!! Poor man, he was 97yrs old, didn’t look a day over 67! He was as fit as a fiddle, spritely young chappy, having a good old laugh in the back of the van... He was showing us photo's of him when he was in the army, and the only thing he was more worried about was not his injuries - oh no, but his dinner and getting back to Age Concern in time for some food!!!! Off he goes up to the local A+E...

We then had a couple more calls - Not awfully interesting, just a few little jobs (all ran on blues and two's)... We had one guy with COPD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_obstructive_pulmonary_disease) took him on board and up to the local Hospital... One old lady with a P.R Bleed (http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=1100611624) again boarded the van and off to A+E... One guy who had passed out, simply taken to A+E for tests... We then had a call to a man who was diabetic whom was hypoglycaemic (Low blood sugars) when we got there his Blood Reading was 0.1 - Normally between 4+7... he was given some IV Glucose and ate some sandwiches, tested his blood again and it was slowly creeping up to 4.2 when we left the poor chappy...

The last call of the day was to a gent with breathing problems - A first responder was en-route also, he arrived, put the gent on high flow O2, we then arrived, put him in our chair, boarded him onto the ambulance, took an ECG and it was showing that he was having a huge heart-attack (Inferior infarction - http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.medscape.com/content/1999/00/41/09/410950/art-mc0504.01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.journal.medscape.com/viewarticle/410950_print&usg=__FgMTTjJvd_87T0nc-YjEW1bdDwc=&h=395&w=702&sz=75&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=FLILMR4WVc1VWM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dinferior%2Binfarction%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1) We gave him aspirin (300mg) a spray of GTN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyceryl_trinitrate_(pharmacology) and pre-alerted the hospital to our arrival - we took him in and ran further ECG, and the nurse confirmed that he was having a heart attack... But we caught it in time (Hopefully)

So there you go, end of my Third Manning shift - only finished 25 Minutes late... But hey who cares, i had an awesome day!!!!!

Will let you know how the next one goes, hope to go this weekend!!!

Bye for now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:->

What we do...

Hey all... Again...

Hope all are well and good... Just thought i would expand a bit more on the Community First Responder (CFR) role...

So what are we???

CFR's are volunteer members of the community who are trained to respond to emergency calls through the 999 system in conjunction with the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
CFR's are not a substitute for the ambulance crews, but because they are based within the community in which they live or work, they are able to attend the scene of an emergency in a very short time often within the first few minutes and in the majority of incidents they would be first on scene. The CFR can then begin vital life saving first aid before the arrival of an Ambulance, further increasing the patient’s chance of survival.

So now i guess you are thinking what training do CFR's get???

Well i will go into further detail about the training i got soon, and how it has affected things etc... But in the meantime this is what the SECAMB website states...

Volunteers attend a two-day course, taught by Ambulance Service Trainers, which covers all aspects of emergency first aid, including:
Basic Life Support (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation)
Use of a Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
Oxygen therapy
Medical emergencies
Minor trauma
Patient assessment

Each new responder must complete a formal assessment at the end of their training and regular ongoing training and refresher sessions are undertaken by the volunteers.

So i will update you all shortly on the training and assessments...

Bye for now guys...

:-)

A bit of background info!

Hi All,

So here we go... My first blog... A blog virgin so to speak... Have a look around, and watch the site grow and grow...

A little scene setting excercise... And it will sum up my new role as a Community First Responder for South East Coast Ambulance Service... (I will explain how training went next...)

OK, so imagine this... Your Mum, Dad, Nan, Grandad, Sister, Brother or whomever you choose, suddenly becomes very ill and requires urgent help! First thing your likely to do is pick up that phone and dial 999... You then say (In a panic) "Ambulance Please" then you get put through to the call handler for the ambulance service... You go through some questions, and then if you tick the right boxes, you will get an ambulance sent, but in serious cases like breathing difficulties, Cardiac Arrest, Chest Pains etc, a Community First Responder may be sent too...

Now your first thoughts are “I expected a big yellow van, with blue flashy lights, and sirens” Well how wrong you will have been… You open that door, and there before you is a person, with a big bag and a defibrillator (Machine that shock’s the heart) wearing not green overalls, but a RED T-Shirt and a High Vis Jacket saying they are a Community First Responder… You look at them blankly and say “OK… quick help… They’re through here!...!

There you go, a Community First Responder is born, saving your precious loved one and you don’t really know what they do! Well I am here to try and explain to the best of my ability and tell you about how I am finding the role, and what I come across when I am on call… But in the back of your mind, I bet you are still thinking “I expected a bloody Ambulance…”

Hope you enjoy the blog, and expand your knowledge as much as I am whilst still learning the ropes!!!