April 02, 2004
Random Acts of Reality
has always been a good read. Written by a London EMT, it's a consistently interesting glimpse inside the ambulance. Recently, though, it's become even more compelling. It started when the site's author lived out every healthcare workers' fear. (Warning: unpleasant medical details inside)
Halfway to hospital he starts to vomit and cough - part of this vomitus/blood flies unerringly across the width of the ambulance... ...right into my open mouth. Pretty disgusting - but what can you do? The patient then starts to come around - now able to move all limbs and to talk. This is good - it means I'm able to get some history from him. So I get his name, date of birth, address. Then I ask this 50 year old if he is normally fit and well. "No", he says, "I have AIDS". Bollocks.The humor, clarity of mind, and compassion, with which the author has been dealing with the situation have been pretty remarkable. I guess that's why he's riding in the ambulance dealing with emergencies, while I'm sitting at home reading about it.
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Indeed. That's some pretty compelling stuff.
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thank you for the link, jacobw. He's distant when necessary, especially on the job, but I can see how he's using the blog as a release after dealing with death and seriously ill people all day. He appears to handle the balancing act quite well.
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... And I get in a lather when my internet connection is slow, or the traffic light doesn't turn green soon enough. The world is a better place because of people like Reynolds. Thanks the perspective tweak jacobw.
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Yes, great link. And he seems much more grown up than I'll ever be.