“Ambulance please.â€
“Hello caller, what’s the problem?â€
“Me and my friend Ian have found a man unconscious on the street. He’s still breathing, there’s no vomit or blood, and I can’t smell any alcohol on him. He’s slipping in and out of consciousness a bit, but there is no reaction from him when we pinch his earlobeâ€
“Yes, it appears that we are already aware of the incident. An ambulance will be with you shortly. Can you look in his mouth and make sure there are no blockages?â€
“No, it’s all clear. Hang on, someone has just walked past and told us there is an ambulance round the corner. Ian’s just gone to tell them where we are.â€
“Yes, they are on standbyâ€
“Standby? What do you mean?â€
“Dan, Dan, just get out of here! Get in the car and just drive off.â€
“Wha..â€
“There are about a hundred policemen with that ambulance, they say there has been a dangerous incident in a house and they are securing the area. The ambulance won’t come anywhere near until it’s safe. They say we need to leave the area immediately.â€
“Oh shit.â€
Driving away my first thought was: ‘Never mind, at least I have something to blog about now.’
But what really got me was why didn’t the operator on the other end of the phone tell me we were in a dangerous situation? They are in continual contact with the ambulance crews so they must have known what was going on. It’s a good job I wasn’t stabbed to death or I might have had to write a strong letter to the Times.
Okay. I’ve waited for someone to ask but so far no one has.
What the hell happened? Why were you there? What was the nature of the dangerous situation? What was the resolution? Aren’t you afraid of fondling a stranger’s earlobe?
I have more, but I suppose they can wait.
I was working at the time, but I was just driving past on my way somewhere else and spotted the guy laying prone on the pavement. It could have been anyone who had intervened.
If I had been your average passer-by on the street, what I wrote above would be all that I knew. There was nothing about it in the news or in the papers. Because I have access to things like the A&E admissions records and various medical notes I do have a bit of an idea what we stumbled into the middle of, but as all that stuff is confidential I don’t really feel comfortable blogging about it.
Made an interesting end to my shift that day anyway.