Blood, Sweat & Tea, page 1 by Tom Reynolds
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The Friday Project
***
BLOOD,
SWEAT
& TEA
Creative Commons Edition
Tom Reynolds
Published by The Friday Project http://www.thefridsyproject.co.uk
***
Too Young
Yesterday started well, we had the only new 'yellow' vehicle on the complex, and it really is an improvement on the old motors. But then we got a job that should have been routine, but unfortunately was not.
We were given a '34-year-old male, seizure' at a nearby football pitch in the middle of a park. Also leaving from our station was the FRU (a fast car designed to get to a scene before the ambulance). As we had a new motor, we were able to keep up with the FRU.
Arriving at the top of the street, we were met and directed by some of the patients football team-mates. Unfortunately, the patient was 200yards into the park, and there was no way we were going to get the ambulance onto the field - the council had built a little moat around the park to stop joyriders tearing up the grass in their stolen cars.
The FRU paramedic had reached the patient first and I ran across the field to get to the patient as the Paramedic looked worried, and this isn't someone who normally worries.
As I reached the patient, carrying the scoop which we would use to move the patient the paramedic asked me if I thought the patient was breathing.
The patient was Nigerian, and it is not racist to say that sometimes detecting signs of life on a black person is harder than if the patient is Caucasian. White people tend to look dead; black people often just look unconscious. Also, a windy playing field in dusk is not the ideal circumstance to assess a patient.
'He's not breathing' I told the paramedic, just as my crewmate reached us. 'Shit' replied the paramedic