Making our way towards the community entrance of the block of flats we veered around the many upturned wheelie bins and assorted detritus of this secluded area of ‘No Hope Estate’. With the resus bag, monitor and big green bag carried between the two of us we stopped at the main door and pressed the big steel buttons on the communication panel. Trying to avoid the dried, and not so dry, remnants of someones meal that had come back up to see how the world was doing I pressed the flat number.
A metallic voice at the other end answered “Yeah? Who is it?” sounding mightily pissed off. “Hello, Ambulance!” I replied thinking that maybe we had the wrong address as were they not expecting us in the first place. Or were we lower down on their list of priorities ie. ‘drugs…extra strength beer…ciggies…shopliftling’? A buzzer sounded letting us pass through the main door and into the entrance hallway which reeked of cheap disinfectant but was spotlessly clean!
Luckily for us the flat was on the ground floor and within seconds we were squeezing down a dim passageway loaded with all our kit. At the end was a door leading into the lounge or living room. On first sight I had to blink a few times to readjust my vision after emerging from the dim passageway. A single bright lightbulb burned fiercely away in the middle of the ceiling which highlighted the fact that this room was very brown. Brown ceilings, brown walls, brown furniture and brown floor covering. But this brown was mostly made up of nicotine not paint or wall paper!
“Who have we come to see?” I asked the middle aged male who had shown us in. He points to the young female sat on the edge of the settee and states “Her!” “The daft bitch who should know better!” Noticing a slight atmosphere in the flat I ask the female what is wrong with her? “I’ve got a chest infection and me inhalers are not working!” Noticing, apart from her dishevelled appearance and her grey bra which was once white, a hospital bracelet on her wrist I ask how long she has been out of hospital? To which she replies that she discharged herself an hour ago against the advice of the doctors and nurses.
Seeing, and hearing that she has a wheeze, we put her on some oxygen and do some baseline observations. Everything points to a bad chest infection and we advise her to go back in which she agrees to. The boyfriend is not happy! But I’m more concerned about the bruises on the young womans arms which look suspiciously like finger marks. Once on the truck and settled down I ask her about the bruising. It turns out that they are injection bruises from where she has just recently started to inject heroin.
I ask her why she injects rather than smoke it? “Well I cant smoke it cos of me chest infection can I?” So in her twisted sort of reasoning she finds it safer to inject so as to not worsen her chronic asthma! I feel at a loss as to comprehend how far some people will let drugs take them over. It seems that her life, her home, her entire reason for exsisting is based around ‘Brown’.
Common Sense is a Rare Commodity!
Purpleplus 
So sad that so many people seem to be drawn into this way of life. I’ve certainly noticed lately that brown seems to be becoming more popular, people who I used to count as friends (and don’t now for obvious reasons) have got quite into taking brown, seems to be a follow on from things like ketamine and GHB that they all insist they can control because they are smoking it. My disdain for that made me rather unpopular with them, but why on earth anyone would voluntarily drink things like industrial floor cleaner (GHB) I’ll never know.
Stay safe in such horrid places big bro, hugs lil sis x
How very very sad, that someone can get this far from reality, I hate and dispice anything to do with drugs, but where was the bastard that got her hooked???? It’s the dealers that all want stringing up and beating to within an inch of their lives…well writtne post as ever though Magic Man..xx
I was quite shocked when I started working in prison to learn that, often, prisoners, who in the past never took anything stronger than cannabis, will move on to heroin for the simple reason that cannabis lasts in one’s system considerably longer than other drugs and they are therefore statistically more likely to fail a random drug test for cannabis than heroin. Heroin lasts a much much shorter length of time in the body. Sadly but inevitably this recreational use can often, of course, become a habit. So they leave with a habit they didn’t have when they came into jail.
Lil Sis…thats the danger when it becomes more and more socially acceptable. I know people at work who take ‘recreational’ drugs and look down on those who don’t! Me thinks ‘random drug testing’ is long overdue in our service. x
Emma…I once went to a drug dealer who commited suicide and the vacuum he left created a mini drugs and turf war! All the other dealers were offering discounts and more assaults happened as a result until someone took over his ‘patch’! x
AnneDroid…I have lost count of the number of heroin overdoses I’ve been to involving newly released prisoners. Because the strength on the street is stronger than in the nick many either died or went into respiratory arrest. x