For everyone that dies, someone else is born

I had a baby this week, well not be personally, but I helped deliver one over the phone to a slightly shocked but delighted father.
When the call came through the father managed to get his address out before suddenly announcing that his girlfriend was pregnant and the baby’s head was out.
I have never delivered a [...]

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Psycological Damage

There are some calls which stay with you and not just the morning after.
I had the call most call takers dread, the distressed mother/father who has found their child unconcious. In my case I had the mother on the phone.
Initially she had only managed to blurt out the address and that her daughter was hanging [...]

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Friday night WAS alright for fighting

So after a hetic few days working (more of which in a new post) last Friday was indeed what we expected, a bloody pain in the arse.
So for me this is how my tally ended up.

7 Assaults
12 falls (9 of which non injury where the carer had a ‘no lift policy’…I hate those!)
8 Chest Pains
2 [...]

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Friday nights alright for fighting

Yes it’s another Friday night, and another Friday night on control for me.
So lets run a bit of a book on the types of calls I will be receiving tonight. So let me start.
With in a 10 hour shift I think it will go something like this.
5 assault, 10 falls (from either elderly people or [...]

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Education, education, education.

‘Education, education, education’ so said Tony Blair in the famous mantra at the Labour Party Conference in 1996, just months before being elected to power.
And while I may have fallen out with the party over many things since that time, education is one thing I still passionately believe in, even if the Government don’t.
But I [...]

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A quite night in

Summer seems to have come late to this next of the woods, yesterday the weather was fabulous, wall to wall sunshine and a warmth not felt since last summer.
Sunshine for me however isn’t a thing to be celebrated, firstly because I’m fair skinned I burn to a crisp at the merest site of a bit [...]

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It’s been a while…

Indeed it has, but then I have had a bit of time off.
Because of the way the shift rotas work within our control room we have the luxury of 8 days off around every six weeks, a welcome relief for everyone on the team especially after a tough and busy summer.
But for me this last [...]

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Funny ha ha

Hoax calls aren’t funny, simple as.
One received today in ambulance control was an especially unfunny one and if I had have been a little quicker I may have realised what had been said before the caller hung up.
The first job any call taker and dispatcher needs to do is establish the address of the emergency [...]

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Woop de doo…the football season has started again

This time last year I would have been delighted at the football and rugby season getting underway, another chance to depress myself and the misfortunes of my time but enjoy it regardless.
But then a year ago I didn’t work for ambulance control, I had a nice nine to five job which didn’t involve dealing with [...]

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Man, naked up a tree…playing the harmonica

Some cases received by ambulance control have to be seen to be believed, so when a call came through about a man up a tree, naked, in drink and playing the harmonica came through almost everyone thought it was some weird kind of hoax.
The police and the fire services like us thought it was some [...]

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