In praise of Ambulances

[NeilEB]

If that's the woman's attitude, I'd love for the council to charge her for reckless driving, and the cost of the ambulance service, repairs to the road, and recovery of her vehicle.

Let's see how much she likes it then.

I don't care how heavily it was raining, flipped car = too damn fast for the conditions.

 

[2Loose]

Nothing but praise and respect for the ambulance and flying doctor staff. I can't understand how people doing the job can remain so calm, respectful and attentive in (sometimes) very difficult situations. They deserve a lot more recognition that they get imho.

 

[Bluebell72]

I can't praise them enough.

I got run over a few years ago, the ambulance crew came, put me on a stretcher, stuck me in the van - and stuck my bike in with me as I had no lock! I spent the ride apologising as my blood dripped onto the vehicle floor and I knew they'd have to have a bit of a 'tidy up' before being street ready again.

They were so kind, so reassuring, and the sad part of it is, they don't get paid what they're worth.
The staff have a lot of idiots to deal with who can't deal with a bit of self-responsibility - the A. service get the blame as they're the first to show up.

 

[rowan 46]

I have nothing but praise for all front line public sector workers

 

[Night Train]

Emergency services are great and anyone who needs (or wants) their service shouldn't really have anything to complain about. Granted that occasionally it takes a little while to get there but there are often reasons for that too.

So long as they come I would have no reason to complain, even informally and quietly to myself.

I've been in a car crash. It felt like hours before the emergency services arrived but that is one of the effects of the adrenalin that got me out of the car, phoning for help and checking on the other drivers before slumping on the ground with shock. I think it was only about 10 minutes or less, after my call, that the crews arrived.

I think this 20 year old driver doesn't know which side her bread is buttered on.

 

[evilclive]

Not the crews' fault obviously, but on a club run a couple of years ago we had a guy lying in the road with a broken pelvis (on a very cold day) for an hour and 15 minutes. The police turned up after about half an hour but said they coudn't do anything to help, unless we started a fight in which case they'd know what to do.

I was lying with a broken hip (femur) for about an hour. But that was nothing to do with the ambulance, more to do with the snow and ice on the ground (which caused my original crash). I was starting to get cold, but people brought some blankets and a warmed wheat bag, which was very nice.

Quite funny listening to the ambulance men discussing whether or not to blue light/siren their way past the traffic blocking the road :-)

I even had to be transferred between two ambulances due to a lorry blocking the road and they coped fine.

Only downside was being told to wear a helmet, and I just kept quiet, avoiding pointing out which bit of me was broken and which bit of me didn't hit the ground at all.

 

[HLaB]

On my first day at uni 16 years ago I bizarrely walked to the front of the class and collapsed (a translucent state) but I can't say how good or bad the Ambulance was as I woke up in hospital they must of done their job though, so they get a thumbs up from me

 

[Tynan]

I shall wildly guess that they have made no allowance that they had rolled their car on a rural lane in torrential lane and possibly were unable to give exact location to an ambulance possibly traveling some distance under difficult driving conditions

Used ambulances a few times and they've always been excellent, it gets a bit less excellent when you get to the hospital but that's rarely the hospital's fault

 

[Chilternrides]

Have never needed one myself, thankfully, but have called them on at least three occasions that I can recall and seen the crews in action - They don't come much better.

As for the woman referred to in the OP's post; from my experiences when calling the AS, you will be asked a series of questions which helps the control centre decide on the urgency (and therefore priority) given to your case.

That alone suggests to me that in this instance it wasn't a top priority, plus once all of the other factors are weighed in (location, time of day, directions to the accident site and so on) a twenty minute attendance time is not all that bad at all.

 

[Arch]

I can't praise them enough.

I got run over a few years ago, the ambulance crew came, put me on a stretcher, stuck me in the van - and stuck my bike in with me as I had no lock! I spent the ride apologising as my blood dripped onto the vehicle floor and I knew they'd have to have a bit of a 'tidy up' before being street ready again.

Mum and I were riding round a country park when she had an off and broke a wrist. An ambulance was called and arrived pretty quickly, considering the distance from any sizeable town. Perhaps they have one waiting locally in case. Anyway, our car was parked in a carpark some distance from where it happened. The crew said "well, we shouldn't but..." and put me, and both bikes in the back with Mum, took us to that carpark, dropped me off to put the bikes in the car, and then I followed them to the hospital, which was in a city I didn't know.

Of course, a broken wrist is fairly minor, so they could use their judgement - that little thing made it much easier for me to cope with it all.

Here in York we have bike paramedics, who can be anywhere in the city centre in a minute or so. The only time I've had to call one here, a guy was at the door while I was still talking to the operator. Sadly, it was already too late, and I knew it, but the sheer relief of having someone official take charge was enormous. Hats off to all of them - I couldn't do it - apart from need to keep calm in emergency situations, I just couldn't deal with the piss-takers and the hoaxers without doing murder.

BTW, I often see our bike paramedics having a break in a cafe, I always assumed it was a good way for them to be on the spot ready to go in the city centre. When they are on call but not on a shout, they do 'PR' talking to the public etc.

I hope the ladies in the OP get nowhere, ungrateful cows.

 

[400bhp]

Thankfully, ambulance drivers and paramedics are wired differently than most of us.

They want to help put people back together and will go out of their way to make you live.

Unfortunately the driver and family in this case sound like the absolute opposite.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Thankfully, ambulance drivers and paramedics are wired differently than most of us.

They want to help put people back together and will go out of their way to make you live.

Yes they do a difficult job very well and don't get the financial rewards they probably should but I don't think you can say they're 'wired differently', are fire fighters? Life boat crew? IMO the vast majority of people would go out of there way to save someones life.