So, a couple of days ago, we shared the text book story of how a former Royal Navy Chief Petty Officers life was saved by his cool-headed family, instructed by Emergency Operations Centre Staff prior to the arrival of various first responders.
The story was a prime example of how our emergency service snap into action and come together like the well-oiled and highly professional machine that they are!
In the article, we shared the video of the 999 call that was made by the Veterans family as they gave the patient life-saving chest compressions before medics arrived and took over.
The Veteran made a full recovery, thanks to the quick actions of his wife and daughter and the amazing response by the ambulance service.
As we trundled into ESH Towers on this bright Bank Holiday Monday, we noticed that someone had sent us an anonymous email about a call that they had dealt with that is at the other end of the spectrum.
They were sent to a ‘patient’ who had had a conversation with a member of the public about an incident that took place 13 years ago.
During the conversation, the patient revealed to the good samaritan that over a decade ago, they had inadvertently swallowed some drain cleaner.
now, don’t get me wrong, drain cleaner is an horrendous thing and if you do end up ingesting it, then you should seek immediate medical help.
But 13 years is a LONG time….
Upon hearing this story, the citizen called 999 and requested an ambulance….I am just going to let that thought sink in for a couple of seconds….
Whilst I am sure that the intentions of the citizen were good, I cannot understand how an innate ‘common sense’ alarm did not kick in and reason with the caller.
Why would you need an emergency ambulance for something that happened 13 years ago!?
The email that was sent to us by the equally-as-confused medic said:
“I have no idea as to why the control room sent us”.
“It is incredibly frustrating that the members of the public think that this conversation should result in a 999 call being made in order to request an emergency ambulance”.
“After some enquiries, we found out that the patient resided near-by and they were returned to some very apologetic careers”.
There are two things, in the context of my ‘day job’ that I am quite passionate about:
the safety of the men and women who serve on the front line of the emergency services & NHS, getting rid of political correctness and COMMON SENSE.
As you can imagine, I was well-and-truly ‘triggered’ when I read about this story. I just cannot fathom why you would dial 999 and ask for an emergency ambulance, because a complete stranger told you that that drank some drain cleaner 13 years ago!?
Can you imagine what would have happened if, the family of the Royal Navy Veteran, would have called 999 in order to request an ambulance, only to be told that there no were ambulances to send because they are all dealing with calls such as this one?
If you have an emergency services related story or blog (whether its light-hearted or serious), then contact our team of former emergency services personnel at: emergency_services_humour@outlook.com or tweet us at @ES_humour or message us via our Facebook page @EmergencyServicesHumour
