First day back with the Wildlife Trust after 4 weeks of travelling. 4 hours swinging a scythe to cut down rushes so that the farmer can get a hay crop without the pesky things. Then a visit from #2 daughter, who brought 4 bottles of beer for fathers’ day - much appreciated.
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17 hours in A&E @ Northumbria Emergency Care Hospital hooked up to the grid after a scary experience after all the moovin’ ‘n’ groovin’ yesterday. So the single crewed fast response Paramedic attending decided that my ecg didn’t indicate heart attack but was sufficiently abnormal to cause concern. Cue a 15 minute blue lights roller coaster ride sitting in the back of a Volvo XC60!
A couple of things strike me about this… Firstly, I was surprised that single crewed vehicles were allowed to transport patients… Last time I experienced a similar situation 13 ish years ago when I broke my shoulder quite severely the paramedic attending said she wasn’t allowed to transport me as a solo crew, despite me being conscious & obviously no risk, so we waited 4 hours for a normal ambulance to transport me. (daft… I could have been in hospital within 10 minutes, and she would have been free to attend to other incidents?) Seemingly now it’s allowed, at the discretion of the attending crew. 
Secondly, it’s surprising how a 15 minute blue lights drive brings out the 60 year old child… Despite being in quite severe discomfort it was still a buzz! 
Anyhow, turns out that after tests etc it turns out that my Troponin levels (the protein released by heart muscle tissue when stressed/damaged) were high enough to cause concern, but below the level expected of a heart attack. Further ecg’s did show abnormalities, but after careful monitoring and repeated tests both my Troponin levels and ecg’s settled to a level where they were happy to discharge me to family care, with a new gtn spray & referral to the chest pain speciality team.
Good news. Apologies for such a long post, but I guess I’m just mulling things over, and here is as good a place as any to do this.
Couple of parting thoughts…
My thanks go firstly to Matty (the fantaatic Paramedic who was absolutely on the ball with his findings, and gave me a roller-coaster ride I’m unlikely to forget for some time) and secondly, and without a doubt the most significant, the fantastic team at NSECH, who were all absolutely awesome.
The care I received from start to finish was exemplary, despite the A&E department being massively stressed at the same time as I was admitted due to a fire in a local block of flats… Apparently “arson gone wrong” (the whole resus department was steaming with plod, attempting to interview casualties, some of whom were obviously “perps” and as under arrest as anyone receiving emergency critical care can be! It’s a strange experience being aware that someone who is obviously very unwell is having their clothing carefully removed and put into an evidence bag & then being wrapped up in cling film before being transferred to a specialised burns unit. I’ve never seen as many uniforms in an A&E, even after spending more than my fair share of time in Newcastle hospitals casualty departments around midnight on a bank holiday!
Sorry, I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent… The whole team of NHS staff I encountered from start to finish were bloody great, I heard no complaints from start to finish throughout my whole time, the care I received was brilliant. I’m OK, others I encountered perhaps sadly didn’t fare quite so well, but therein lies the beauty of the NHS…Im in awe of the care I received when times were difficult for those involved.
NHS:heart:
Tl;dr…
We need our NHS… DON’T vote TORY!
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Northumbria is a great hospital in my experience and so glad you had a good outcome from what must have been pretty traumatic for you and your family.
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Very pleased that it wasn’t as serious as it could have been. A piece of sincere advics - stay well 
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Quite an adventuresome day, if a quite worrying whilst in the thick of it Alan.
Good news from the sound of it. Will yer raise a glass of Caol Ila, to celebrate.
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Already on it Chris… 
First, and quite probably tho only one (or perhaps a cheaky 2nd) thing I’m likely to do before I retire early! 
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This conjures up all sorts of images that wouldn’t be out of place in a Guy Ritchie movie.
It would be funny if the police and the NHS didn’t have to pick up the pieces from some moron’s get-rich-quick scheme.
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Clad to hear that you didn’t have a heart attack. Less of that king of attention seeking behaviour please.
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Attention seeking… Moi?
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Yep!
Good luck and cuddles anyway.
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Getting covered in paint. Domestic argument over decorating, one of them had to be nicked and kicked off assaulting two officers. I have turned up as backup and whilst driving to them the other person in the domestic has thrown a can of paint over everyone.
I wasn’t as bad as these two or the houses floor/walls. But still ended up with plenty of paint on myself too 
The irony was that I had just cleaned my shoes and trousers beforehand after walking around woodland for a few hours trying to find a suicidal person.
Edit: it was gloss 
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They won’t forget their brush with the law in a hurry…
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I imagine this isn’t something that the police just gloss over lightly.
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My mum once knocked a litre of white gloss over while she was painting our hallway skirting boards. It soaked into a fitted dark blue carpet. She phoned ICI Paints in a panic and they said that with enough detergent it could in fact be washed out, but the critical thing was not to let it dry. As advice goes this might be too late in your colleagues’ or your case Dom, but you’re welcome to it for anything it might be worth.
…and certainly not what @Dom had in mind when he aspired to become a decorated officer…
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Funny, I would have thought that quite a few police forces were used to whitewashing.
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The fella next to you with the pack of wet wipes looks an optimist.
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Not something you can just gloss over.
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Sounds a bit slap - dash.
(Hope the gloss was water-based)
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Domestics often become very emulsional…
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