Tuesday: 3 patients.

What a contrast from Monday, only 3 patients! Having said that we had 4 RRVs and an ECP running around taking some of the heat off of us. And only an hour of standby, great!

1. Fits, male with a history of epilepsy who had suffered a small seizure whilst out shopping in town. He was on floor and conscious but a bit dazed. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep it off so after checking him over we took him home, which was only about 500 yards away. We then contacted his GP surgery with a view to them reviewing why he was having more and more seizures.
2. GP 999, male with post operative hernia problems had visited the GP who decided he needed to go to A/E. There was a technician on a RRV on scene who after giving us a handover said that he would of taken the patient to A/E but the Dr thought it would be more comfortable for the patient to lie down. The hospital was half a mile away and it took my crew mate longer to fill out the clinical report form than it did to drive to the hospital and off load the patient!
3. SOB, female with Emphysema who had been seen by a GP an hour earlier at home. As we looked at the GP's note it said in the top left corner 'Advised to dial 999 if gets any worse'. I asked if her breathing was this bad when the Dr was there to which the husband replied 'Oh yes.'
I couldn't believe it so I told them that next time it gets this bad just to call us straight away. The lady was really struggling so we needed to move fast. My crew mate gave her a salbutamol and atrovent nebuliser while I was securing an IV line, the last patient I went to like this ended up having seizures and going into respiratory arrest. I didn't want to take any chances. On the way in to hospital her condition improved with the treatment so we took her down to the medical assessment ward but within a few minutes her breathing started to become worse again. 'Over to you then' I said to the staff. The lady still managed to thank us for what we did and then blow us a kiss and wave us goodbye.

Oh well another couple of night shifts to contend with next. I'm not the biggest fan of night shifts as I personally think that the quality of work isn't the same as during the day. Some may contest that fact but all I can do is go on personal experience.