Went on a magical mystery tour… drove back to my home town to visit some of the family and decided to go across country. I knew that you turn right half way through one of the small towns so I was going slowly and looking out for the signs… I saw no sign and ended up in a completely different town and added 20 minutes to my journey rather than taking off the same amount of time.
On the way back home I came across an accident… a woman flagged me down and I could see a group of motor cyclists in the ditch (I was driving across the moors and the ditches are 5 feet full of stagnant water). I leapt out of my car and instantly slipped back into my old volunteer role of paramedic, I used to work part time on the St John’s ambulance team and attended a few RTAs (Road Traffic Accidents and yes, I know they have a different term nowadays). The guys were just pulling their friend out of the ditch and as soon as they laid him onto the road he came back to life and began thrashing violently around trying to get up. A couple of the guys tried to hold him down and the injured man began swearing and punching at them.
We just about managed to calm him enough to allow me to do the top to toe checks (checking for any obvious broken bones) which showed he had a clean break on one leg. It took a lot of persuading to stop his friends from removing his helmet which could have caused a whole heap of problems and I slowly and steadily lifted the visor to check his eyes. I instantly saw that one pupil was dilated and the other was shot to pieces, the entire coloured part of the eye was black and the white of the eye was red. I knew exactly what it was… A head trauma, and a bad one at that!
When the guys had called for an ambulance, we were told it would be between 15 and 20 minutes before it arrived at the scene, but I knew that he probably didn’t have that time to waste as when they arrive they would have to check him over, load him into the back and then there would be the drive to hospital with limited supplies. I dialled 999 and demanded the air ambulance. The woman on the phone kept on saying “I am sure he will be ok to wait for the requested ambulance”, I couldn’t believe her response! I soon launched into all the old jargon that we had to use and requested a particular helicopter which I knew used to be in the area and then she realised I was being serious. Ten minutes later, the helicopter arrived, closely followed by the ambulance. All the paramedics agreed that the local hospitals didn’t have the necessary equipment this guy needed to keep him alive and next thing we knew he was being air lifted to the main Brain Injury unit for the South West.
After all of that, the police spoke to me and said that I would need to pop into the station to give a statement (not that I even saw anything!). So off I went back home to clean myself up and try to get the smell of ditches out of my skin and hair. It was a pure coincidence that it was the right time to get to my churches evening service, so I made my way over there and had everyone pray for the guy I had helped just a few hours before.
What a day.
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2 comments:
Wow, i drop by your site from time to time (im subscribed to a feed). I'm sure the motorcycle guy was happy you were driving by. do you know whether he lived or died?
Well, he didn't seem it at the time, but that's a typical sign of head injury.
The last I heard from the police he had just been taken onto a normal head injury ward, meaning he is out of intensive care and well on his way to recovery. However as the police no longer require my assistance in the case I am unable to get any further information on his recovery.
Thanks for poppping in Kevin!
K
x
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