Following the recent ‘spike’ in angry notes being left on Emergency vehicles, one of our followers sent this blog into us via our Facebook page.
Never have we seen such a succinctly written message intended to convey the daily issues which our emergency services have to face.
If you see an emergency vehicle parked somewhere YOU think it should not be, then just take a few minutes to read this heart-felt message:
“In response to recent moanings from uninformed members of the public about emergency services vehicles parking on double yellow lines I offer the following…
“On patrol in a panda car my colleague and I were flagged down outside an address by a distraught male. We didn’t feel it was appropriate to keep going and look for a free parking space, we stopped immediately.
“This male’s elderly wife had collapsed behind a bedroom door, access could not be gained and she was unresponsive. We didn’t have time to go back outside and move the panda.
“Stripping off stab vest and appointments to be small enough to squeeze through an impossible gap to assess her condition, find no pulse and no breathing, and reassuring her frightened husband took priority over the position of the police car.
“All thoughts of parking were out of my head as I commenced CPR and braced for the inevitable and sickening crack of ribs under my hands in the first few compressions.
“Concentrating on the depth, rhythm and quality of compressions overtook everything else, including the fact I was knelt in bodily fluids with increasingly numb feet and laboured breathing with the effort of sustaining effective pressure.
“My colleague, who was on the phone to ambulance control, felt it more appropriate to give essential information about the casualty rather than advise attending crews to park a distance away due to yellow lines being outside the address.
“The paramedics and HART team arriving, carrying half a ton of life-saving equipment into the house to give the lady the best fighting chance to survive, didn’t spare a second trying to park ‘appropriately’ as a life was hanging in the balance.
“The road may have been narrowed and passing traffic may have to pause for a number of seconds to filter through, but the drivers get to cause themselves further momentary delay by choosing to rubberneck, or simply continue with their journey and not need to spare further thought for a matter in which they have no emotional investment or involvement.
“On conveying relatives to the hospital, following the ambulance, again the panda was parked on yellow lines nearest the entrance to A&E resus, not out of laziness but practicality for an elderly and shocked husband and sister-in-law to access the department quickly and easily.
“The panda was left there for the duration of delivering heartbreaking news and comforting the bereaved in their most painful moments…I’m not in the slightest bit sorry they weren’t left alone during this time so that it could be relocated into a far-off parking space needed by other hospital users.
“Please, if you are not a member of the thinning, overstretched, demoralised but determined and dedicated blue, green and red lines – don’t judge. Don’t assume. Don’t feel the need to publicly slate.
“Just understand that stories like this are unfolding, unseen and unreported, all around you.
“It could be the next call an oppo is pulled away to whilst trying to buy a sandwich from Tesco.
“In these roles it is time-critical. If there is no delay in getting the right people to the right place as quickly as possible there are no ‘what ifs’, no ‘if we’d only been quicker somehow’, no questions which will remain in the hearts of those having to live with an event like this.
“If it’s not your business, be very grateful.
“If it is one day, you will totally understand”.
