Blood, Sweat & Tea, page 119 by Tom Reynolds
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drawn toward people with obvious symptoms. It's not just your eye - a trained ear can hear the cough of a child with a chest infection, or the puff and wheeze of a chronic bronchitis.
I suspect doctors have the same problem, the constant inspection of clubbing in the fingers, the subliminal inspection of the eyes and the unconscious appraisal of someone's gait.
In some part, it's because you are trained to look for what is wrong with people - but equally, there is that desire not to be around the person who is most likely to have a heart attack in front of you. At least when you are not on duty. This is why, when the 80-year-old female with ankles the size of tree trunks and blue lips decides to hit the pavement, there won't be a medical professional to be seen for miles.
It's not that we are lazy, or that we have no love for our fellow man when we are not getting paid for it, its just that without any of our 'kit', there is very little we can do to look busy, or effective. Without equipment, the options are CPR (if their heart has stopped), the recovery position (if they are unconscious) or a 'there, there', with a bit of hand holding if it is a grazed knee.
Of course, the first thing to do is to call for an ambulance.
Mobile Phones
We often have problems with mobile phones in the ambulance service - we find ourselves trying to talk to a patient, while they are more intent on talking to their friend/mum/cousin/dealer on the phone.
I've had to pull people out of the way of incoming traffic because they are so focused on photographing the damage to their car with their mobile phone that they neglect to realise that they are standing in the middle of a busy dual carriageway.
I've been trying to resuscitate dead patients when their mobile phone has rung - I look at the screen and see that the person trying to call them is 'MUM'.
I've been in the middle of what can best be described as a 'public order situation', and while trying to deal with the injured