Bonfire Night & Rugby

It’s been a busy weekend for the likes of us lot in the emergency services, seeing as it has been bonfire night and all. This weekend I was on duty all day Saturday at a rugby match, followed by all night at my local bonfire.
Luckily the rugby matches went off without any hassle. The bonfire was slightly different!
Compared to previous years however, it was extremely quiet. We had the usual burns from torches and sparklers, and then we had some very stupid kids who thought it would be funny to fire fireworks at each other.

Stupid fuckers children.

Thankfully, we were packed up fairly early and all was well.

This morning I was on duty again at another batch of rugby matches. The first few matches went off without anything serious, just the usual strains & sprains. However, 4 and 1/2 minutes into the last match of the day, me and my colleague were faced with a suspected spinal injury. As a preacaution we kept the head in neutral position and called for ambulance assisitance. They arrived within 15 minutes.. which wasn’t bad considering the distance they travelled! (But I won’t get into the conversation, i.e; ambulance times).

Anyway, the ambulance arrived and we assisted them in packing up the casualty onto a longboard. Shortly after they left for the nearest A & E.

That concludes another of my fun packed weekends..

It’s Been A Long Time..

Once again it’s been a very long time since my last post!
I have been so busy I just honestly haven’t had the time. Sometimes I haven’t checked my e-mails for over a week, let alone post a blog.

See next post for an incident after I worked today….

It’s Been A Long, Long Time…

Hey everyone,

First of all.. my apologies for the length of time since my last blog, I have been so busy with exams, working and other various things that I really haven’t had the time to post a blog! I hope you are all okay and things are well.

I have been on duty at so many things since my last blog that it would take such a long time to write about them all, infact it might just turn into a book!
However, I am on duty at quite a large show all day tomorrow, so I will definetly blog again regarding tomorrow, also with pictures (hopefully!).

The weather forecast is stating that the temperature could get up to as high as 30 degrees tomorrow, which is great news for the organisers of the event, but not so good for us lot who have to pick up the pieces of the silly people who decide not to; wear sun cream, cover themselves from the sun and drink enough water!

Well wish me luck (I think me and my colleagues may need it tomorrow!).

Look back soon for the details of tomorrow…

On Duty At The Golf & Village Fete

Hey everyone,
I was on duty at quite a large and well-known golf event last Thursday. It was screened on BBC2 throughout the afternoon, so it was a high profile event. Luckily it wasn’t a very busy day and we only dealt with a few injuries, such as spectators being hit by golf balls! Gladly they were all fine, apart from some bruising which they might have had the next day!
Over the whole day there was four ambulance vehicles positoned over the site, along with two purpose built golf buggies, one of which for our members and the other for the site Doctor. These were a great help for getting around the site!
However, when these duties high profile duties arise they always come with a catch, and this one was that we had to be on site and operational by 7am. Which meant me having to get up at 5am! I didn’t arrive back home until 9pm that night.
I can tell you now, that is a very long day. But it’s all good fun!
Check out my photo gallery for a few pictures!

On Duty At A Local Village Fete

On the Sunday afternoon just gone I was on duty at a village fete not far from where I live. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t at it’s best, however the turnout was still strong which just shows that some areas around here do still have a big community spirit. All in all it was another not very busy day. There was 3 of us on duty at this event, well.. 2 ambulance members and 1 ‘observer’.
For those of you who don’t know or can’t guess what an ‘observer’ is, it’s someone is either thinking of joining our service or someone who has joined but hasn’t completed their training yet, and they come along with us to observe and see what we get up to.
Observers can sometimes be a great help, but other times.. can be a great pain. Luckily this time our observer was a great help and really enthusiastic to learn all about what we do.

Take a look at my photo gallery for some pictures, and look under the page name the same as this blog.
I will blog again soon as I am on duty at another high profile event this Saturday. Take care.

Going, going.. gone.

It’s Been A While…

Hey,
I thought I would write a post seeing as I haven’t for over a month! I’ve been really busy lately, so haven’t had time to write a post. I’ve done a few jobs recently, but haven’t really had anything serious.
The bank holiday weekend just gone I worked at a typical village fair, which is a fairly large village so we had our vehicle parked in the middle (makes sense doesn’t it?), and what happens.. the only casualtys we have are at each end! The first casualty of the day was a young female who cut the bottom of her big toe, which was bleeding quite a lot, but after cleaning the wound it soon became apparent it wasn’t serious at all. The female was more concerned about her new sandals which she brought the previous day, as they were saturated in blood!
The second casualty caught her finger in scaffolding while packing away her stall. This was a straight forward job, and was finished in under 5 minutes.

As it is getting closer and closer to the hot summer months I will be blogging more as I will be working more! Also I have exams coming up, so need to be studying for them too! So much to do, so little time.

Take a look at my photo gallery for new pictures.

Take care, blog again soon.

Easter Egg Hunt

Hey,
This morning I was on duty at my local showground, where an Easter Egg Hunt for children under 10 years had been arranged by a local organisation. The actual hunt was spread out over about 4 fields and woodland. Thankfully our assistance wasn’t needed too much, and we only treated a few children for minor injuries. Cuts and grazes mainly, but a few sprains as well. It makes a change to treat minor injuries rather than major ones! But still.. not very nice treating children at all =[

I'm not working for the rest of the easter weekend, and am spending easter with my girlfriend =] So all in all should be a good easter.
I hope you all have a really great easter.. don’t eat too much chocolate! Take care, and I’ll blog again soon.

James.

It’s Been A While

Hello everyone!
I thought I would write a post seeing as I haven’t for such a long time! I have been so busy lately, I just haven’t had the time. I’ve been busy studying, it’s getting close to my exams now so I have to at least pretend to concentrate! I’ve been quite busy with ambulance work as well, doing bits and pieces, mostly talks to youth groups recently but I’m “Back On The Run” so to speak this weekend, so will post again then and let you know how it went!
I have been doing my AED (Automated External Defibrillator) course which I successfully passed on Tuesday, which is good news all round. I will tell you more about this at the weekend.
Also, my love life has started looking up recently as well. I’ve been with my [amazing] girlfriend now for nearly two months and everything is looking good.

I hope all is well with all of you, I will post a blog again at the weekend.

James.

12 Hour Rugby Training and 8km walk

Hey,
Sorry I haven’t blogged for a few weeks. There hasn’t been much work and other things have been going on and what have you. Well, I worked on Saturday night at my local rugby ground.

In the summer of 2006 a 16yr old rugby player from this particular rugby club was killed in a tragic car accident, and a charity has been set up in his name to raise money for a certain cause. The Under 17’s team endured in a 12 hour training session, which included a 8km walk. They carried out the 12 hours between 12 midday and 12 midnight. The walk started at 10:30pm, so you can imagine what time we eventually finished! Me and my colleague walked with the boys to ensure everything went smoothly, which I’m pleased to say it did. Even though it was raining, cold, wet and pitch black, it was a worthwhile walk. I now have blisters on both feet and my legs ache like anything (this is two days on!).

From being part of that walk I am determined to do one thing.. start going to the gym again! I’ve got a week off this week which is great, because after the weekend, I was shattered. I spent Saturday day time with my lovely girlfriend, then went straight to work after dropping her off at the station, then got in from work at 1:30am and caught the 09:05 train to go to her house! So yes.. a bit hectic really.

I am now officially broke after going shopping today for Valentines Day!
Take care, I will blog again soon as work is picking up again now.

James.

My New Kit Bag

Good afternoon,
I recently changed kit bags so If you like have a look at the photo gallery where I have uploaded a few pics for you all to have a look!
Quite a few people within the Ambulance Service carry their own kit bag, from First Aiders to Paramedics. It really does make things a hell of a lot easier when responding to an incident!

I was going to blog today about how work went [another four rugby matches] however after arriving at the rugby club found out that all four matches had been cancelled.. so sorry but you’ll just have to wait until next time! But keep on looking back because you never know, I might end up blogging earlier than I think.

It’s a gorgeous day today so I am really glad that the matches were cancelled actually. I’m off out now to enjoy the sunshine!
Take care, and keep those comments coming.

To see the photo gallery click on the bar along the top.

James.

A very uneventful morning

Worked again this morning, at the rugby. Except I didn’t do any work! Makes a change, but no-one needed our assistance which I was quite happy about! I’d rather not have to do any work.
And now.. the week begins again. [A bit of a depressing thought actually!]

But anyway, I’d better go now. I will blog again soon.
Hope everyone is okay.

Take care..
James.