5ft tall and weighing 9 stone: obviously a HUGE patient
Today I did 2 things I don’t normally do. The first was to stop in at the local coffee shop for lunch; sandwich, chocolate brownie and coffee. The second, while I was there, was to peruse the Daily Mail – I’m still recovering from the effects of right wing bias with a feminist slant. Nevertheless this article on page 28 really got my blood up.
Being the Daily Mail we can’t be sure that it’s not sensationalised, however…
I notice that Yorkshire Ambulance Service are carrying out an ‘investigation’ but don’t deny the story. So just who were these Muppets? And what Health and Safety Legislation says that can’t carry a person upstairs? What do they do with a cardiac arrest, unconscious or CVA job in a basement, or in a house with steps up to the road? This kind of thing is such an embarrassment to all of us who work hard to look after our patients.
If they were so concerned why didn’t they ask at the hospital how the patient was going to cope at home? And, even if they didn’t check everything in advance, are they really such a couple of wimps that two of them can’t lift a 9 stone (124 pounds) patient even if she wasn’t able to bend her leg?; there’s always techniques for getting round these things. Would these jerks like their grandmother to be treated like this.
Aaarrrggghhhh! Makes my blood boil just thinking about it.
We don’t need arseholes like these in the job!
Diagnosis? N.F.I. 
Why are there never headlines saying “Ambulance worker walks like a duck for the rest of the week and crawls out of bed like a sloth having hoiked 15st woman up 3 flights of stairs in a carry chair from world war II because they havn’t been given a swanky new chair with caterpillar tracks on due to the fact that the service has no money and this woman has been waiting for a bungalow for 3 months and there were no other crews available to do a 4 man lift.” (I know this is beginning to sound like a country and western song)
I have no idea how true this story is especially as it is in the Mail. There are patients who claim they cannot walk and are seen running out of Netto with 10 bags of shopping the next day, having made a miraculous recovery which doesn’t do anything to ease that twinge in your back, and there are patients who make false allegations against staff for no better reason than it is Tuesday.
If it is true and they turn out to be exactly the tossers described in the article then i agree they are in the wrong job
I,ve always been told that when we take someone home if they cannot get up their own stairs (insde the house) we should not carry them upstairs…due to the fact that if a fire was to occur…need I say more.
As to the Daily Mail report, if true, then yes the crew (paramedic/tech/STS/PCS/PTS or whover it was as we are called paramedics in the press..or ambulance staff!) the crew should have helped the lady get into her house properly.
It is also, as you know, easier to carry downstairs than up.
Needs must when the person is ill/injured in a basement to facilitate extrication from the scene to hospital
I forgot to add that the crew should be taken to task over their actions in getting the patient into her front door. We all know certain crews/staff that we would not like anywhere near our families.
I have also been told not to carry patients up flights of stairs but sometimes it’s unavoidable and i notice nobody removed the carry chairs from the vehicles, which makes me wonder if it isnt a case of Health and Safety covering their backs and not looking after mine.
I do take issue with neglect of any generation by whoever is responsible……but (there’s always a but!) I have also met people who live in unsuitable accomodation and have refused various offers to move, citing such reasons as “I’ve lived here all my life, i don’t want to move.” and the classic “I paid my taxes”. In this situation what kind of person would leave them at the bottom of the stairs?
Hey, im a trainee paramedic at one of the new university courses, and after reading your’s and several other blogs, i thought i’d start one about life as a trainee. If you get a chance, would you mind looking at it, and letting me know what you think and how to improve. I’ve only just started it so there’s not much yet. The link is:
http://journals.aol.co.uk/traineeparamedic/like-of-a-trainee-paremedic/
Thank you
I’m stunned but still vaguely cautious given where this was printed.
SD
A similar thing happened to my 85 year old mother about 18 monts ago. She has arthritis in her knees, and couldn’t get off her chair. The doctor arranged for her to go to hospital but when the ambulance arrived one of the ambulance men refused to help the other get her off the chair citing health and safety and telling my mother that if she didn’t try to walk she never would.