Her best friend decided to kneel down, grab her and wail “you’re going to die, you’re going to die” as I arrived, so despite the crowd of people who had gathered, only one person had the brains to get a blanket (thanks to the nice lady) and only one person was willing to try and keep her with us (me, with rusty first aid skills). I knew I wasn’t going to be able to give her cpr very well with crushed ribs, so I cleaned her mouth of teeth, told her to spit any out which she needed to, took her vitals, relayed them to the ambulance and at that point her mate returned, along with a lad who had been in the car, she stood behind me, he stood in front of us and she proceeded to hit him whilst kicking me (hopefully by mistake). I had to get up, physically restrain her, yell in her face to go forth and multiply and let me get on with helping her friend before pushing her away.

I then managed to persuade an old guy from the crowd to hold the victim’s head steady as she was nauseous and then explained how we should turn her if she started to throw up as I believed she probably had back and/or neck injuries. The crowd then decided to disagree and shouted me down saying I was going to cripple her. I yelled back that if she threw up and I didn’t turn her, she was going to inhale vomit and die, and they quietened down (amazing how many were able to give advice but none would help).

By now, the poor girl was drifting in and out and coming back only if I spoke to her continually and asked her questions.

The ambulance had trouble getting to us (took about 20 mins and three calls) and when it did get there, it had to get through a crowd and then over the debris from the accident.

The crew walked straight up to her, ignoring me and I got out of the way. Went home bruised, covered in blood and wee and glass. It did give me an insight into what you guys go through but it would have been nice to have a thank you for keeping the patient going!!!

I tried to find out what had happened to her but nothing was reported in the papers and the hospital wouldn’t give me any info or pass on a get well message to her from me.

She was only fourteen, a nice kid mixed up with a bad crowd and I hope she made a full recovery. It did make me get myself on a refresher first aid course and I wouldn’t think twice about doing it again, this time mindful of the stupid people who seem to abound at times!

And about firemen putting hurt people in a firetruck: in America we have these rescue unit trucks that look like fire trucks but are essentially toolboxes on wheels and are meant to be an all-in-one rescue unit that can put out a burning vehicle, rip the occupants out, and take them to the hospital, all in one vehicle! But I’ve also seen them used for just one of these tasks, either at a fire, or just as an ambulance when none of the regular ones are available. They probably have those in Ireland too. Either that or it was a “Who’s left to rescue the ambulance people”?

I work for PoliceOne.com and we are contacting a group of relevant blogs to offer our RSS feeds as additional content for your readers.

We are also open to creating a custom feed for your site focused specifically on the interests of your users (i.e. Police Related News, Articles, and Tips).

If you are interested please email me back at darcy.carroll@praetoriangroup.com.

Best,
Darcy Carroll

Rob…sign of the times and the country we now live in. Income generation and pure laziness/apathy on the behalf of the ambulance service in not backing up well intentioned motives.

Rach…one of the problems we have is cars following in our ‘wake’ when we are responding to an emergency. they think they will get to where ever quicker but put everybodys lives at risk. x

Petrolhead…I am amazed at the amount of people who see others pulling up in front and then they pull out without using their mirrors. far too many times and I have hit one car that did just that…it delayed the response to a seriously injured man (who died later as result of injuries).

nickopotamus…we should be using on board cameras same as the police. Once evidence is collected the driver could be charged. Only problem would be the gov would see it as another money making scheme.

Louise…it does seem to be getting worse. Education and robust deterent sentencing (except the ‘moving from red light ‘ scenario with good intent.)

Ben…with more ambulances and RRVs flying around on blues and twos than ever before (thanks to call connect) there should be more training in the driving lessons for learner drivers on how to react.

Decius…I like your style, I will put forward your suggestion to management…anonymously of course!

Persephone…sounds like a good scheme in germany.

Major…similiar to earlier commenters post. If it happened to me I would appeal and kick up a storm in the local papers to shame the ambulance service into support.

Elliot…******g h**l! I’m not going to that big store that begins with the letter ‘T’ anymore! The ‘Queen of Darkness’ sounds formidible! People just dont seem to be able to fathom out their own morals at times. Fortunately there are still more good than selfish people…although the latter seems to be growing in numbers!

Understandably the aisle was closed while first aiders did their best to stop the lady bleeding to death, whilst she had her fit. J and P did a fantastic job ending up covering in the old ladies blood.

A lady walked up to H one of the managers and demanded Jelly Babies. H was known unaffectionately as the Queen of Darkness (that’s by the people who actually got on with her!) H told the woman in a loud voice, in no uncertain terms that she would have to come back due to the obvious nature of the emergency, that you could see the blood from the end of the aisle etc.

The woman then threw such a hissy fit that P threw a bag of Jelly Babies at her. The woman then pointed and said “Not those, the one’s next to them”.

The store manager just about got between H and the woman before H sacrificed her to the dark lord… The elderly lady died later in hospital and never regained consciousness.

Same store… I treated an elderly lady who collapsed at the back of checkouts hitting her head on a checkout on the way down, she had a massive lump on her forehead. I wasn’t prepared to move her and shoppers were directed back through one checkout and then through another checkout so that I had room to work and people could still get out… several people said “I hope she’s okay”, asked “Will she be okay”.. one lady asked if we wanted her newly bought cushions for under her head…

Then there was a gentlemen in his fifties who decided to ignore the diversion and repeated rammed my leg with his trolley in an effort to make me move out of the way… I was known for my tact, diplomacy and customer service skills.. Not on this occasion. I stood up and told him if he did that one more time I would put him forceably on the floor next to the lady. My old lady was later discharged from hospital.

Same store… A lady in her later forties early fifties had a fight with her husband, locked herself in the car and decided to put her foot down and drive straight out of the car park. Her plan would have worked except someone was on the crossing, she ploughed into the woman, ran over her leg leaving tire marks in her leg. She then stopped and hurled abuse at the woman, tried kicking her in the chest and head. Security pulled her off. As ambulance service was putting her onto the spinal board she escaped from security by elbowing one of the guards in the face, she then tried attacking the woman she’d run over. Police who were on scene ended up pinning her to the floor to stop her.

Other examples:

While putting an eight year old boy on a spinal board, myself and three members of ambulance crew were verbally abused and spat at.

A car vs. lorry accident outside the store blocked the exit, there were dozens of complaints that people couldn’t get out of the car park, one gentleman narrowly avoided killing a police officer trying to force his way through.

A fishmonger nearly sliced a finger off preparing a fresh trout, on seeing him bleeding and trying to call for help commented “I suppose I’ll be kept waiting for my fish now. ”

I could go on but I think that’s enough for now!

Late last year in Perth Western Australia a driver stopped at a red light when an ambulance came up behind him with red lights on. He pulled in front of the car beside him and allowed the ambulance to proceed. He was technically in the intersection but was not actually far enough in to be in the path of vehicles going the other way.

Sadly for him
1. There was a red light camera at the intersection
2. The police prosecuted him
3. The ambulance service was not interested

I think, blocking emergency vehicles should be prosecuted more often and fines should be higher.

@Louise: In Germany, we have to do a course on very basic First Aid measures before we can get a driver’s licence. During my course the paramedic told us repeatedly, how to behave. And we also discussed various settings. Maybe this certificate should not be issued for life, but need “refreshing” every five years or so.

Make it clear that you ARE going to continue on your intended course at your intended speed, even if they fail to clear out.

Although I do wonder if the reduced response time would be worth all of the “Impaled by an ambulance” calls. One can dream, anyway.

With all that’s going on, can you blame them? Unfortunately, anger and frustration tends to carpet-bomb rather than being aimed only at the deserving targets.

I agree with Louise; how to act when you encounter an emergency vehicle should be part of the driving test.