On the way home today, after my Logistics Support volunteer shift, I sat on a bench by a bus stop, 10 mins walk from our East London Ambulance Hub, taking in the evening sunshine and people watching.
A bus pulled up at the bus stop. It stayed there a few minutes, as buses do, and I just assumed it was to regulate the service, as is often normal with buses. It was there a while and I took no notice of it, just continued enjoying the sunshine and sea (there was no sea lol).
After realising the bus had been parked there a while longer than one would expect for a few minutes of service regulation, it dawned upon me that the bus had been there so long that everyone who was on the bus had disembarked to continue their journey via another bus or by other means.
The bus had emptied and the back doors remained open. Still onboard the bus I saw the driver pacing back and forth, a woman sitting at a window seat near the front, and a man wearing a high visibility vest, also pacing back and forth whilst talking on his phone. I then noticed the driver bending down talking to the seated woman who was now leaning forward.
It appeared something wasn’t right, so I boarded the bus to see if there was anything wrong and if I could possibly offer any help. I quickly learned both the driver and the man on his phone were each communicating with the emergency services, trying to get an ambulance to come to her aid.
The bus driver told me that the woman, who was now leaning against the window, holding her chest and seemingly in a lot of pain, said to him that she’s having a heart attack and that she had one last week and that’s how she knew what was wrong with her.
Still holding her chest, saying she needed the hospital and she doesn’t want to die, she managed to present some medication from her bag to me. The man on his phone was at this time still giving information about her condition to the emergency services. The bus driver was also doing the same from his driver seat.
As she was still sitting and leaning over but now not making any movement, I spoke to her and she responded. I then just kept talking to her and tried to keep her calm. I asked her name, which she told me, I had a look at her medication, and reassured her help is on the way while she told me some of what the bus driver and the other man present had already told me she’d said prior to my arrival.
I decided to call the Hub directly and told them what was happening to see if there were any ambulance crews available that could immediately assist. It seemed like a good 10 mins had passed while waiting for any ambulance to arrive. The man was still on his phone and the driver was also on a call trying to get emergency assistance.
I don’t know what made me look out of the bus window behind me at this moment, but I turned around and saw an ambulance driving past in the opposite direction of the bus, it was a St John Ambulance. I recognised it was Peter and Shelbie just on their way to the Hub to begin their twilight shift for the evening. They had no idea there was an emergency situation taking place inside the bus on the other side of the road.
I immediately ran out of the bus and managed to flag them down, signalling them to come to the bus. I perhaps could’ve done a better job of displaying urgency, panic, distress, and an emergency help required now type of energy, as afterwards I learned that they initially thought I was just waving at them to say hello. Nevertheless, on went the blue lights and they turned around and came back and parked in the road behind the bus and jumped out to find out what the matter was.
I informed them that a woman on the bus says she’s having a heart attack, how long we’d been there, gave them her medication and made them aware that she’d been given some water to drink just prior by the bus driver, and that she informed us she’d suffered a heart attack just last week. They hastily grabbed a Lifepak from the ambulance, an oxygen cylinder bag etc and boarded the bus to aid the woman.
As they were talking to her and carrying out their observations, in between the cramped seating area of the bus and the stairway, the woman began to vomit profusely. I ran out of the bus and onto to the ambulance and bought back sick bags and tissues and gave a sick bag to the woman. After vomiting, the woman when asked said she was unable to walk to the ambulance. She was then placed in a carry chair and hurriedly wheeled off the bus by the crew towards the ambulance.
Just as this was happening, London Ambulance Service turned up with their ambulance and parked up behind ours. As Peter and Shelbie hadn’t signed on for work yet and were without an airwave radio, the woman was then handed over to LAS instead to be transported from there to the hospital.
As this was happening, I had collected the Lifepak, its leads and oxygen cylinder bag from the bus and took them back onto our ambulance. I placed the Lifepak back in its bracket and then Clinell wiped clean the leads on realising when I touched them that, like the other equipment, they hadn’t quite fully escaped the shower of projectile vomit the bus had received. I further wiped my hands clean and placed the used wipes in the clinical waste bin at the back of the ambulance.
By this time, Peter and Shelbie had returned from handing over the woman to the LAS. We were still parked in the road. There was right then a moment we somehow all at the same time were walking down the ramp of the ambulance exiting the open back doors. I looked up to see another St John Ambulance crew driving past us, on their way to another emergency call. They smiled and acknowledged us as they drove by. In that very moment, I felt tall and I felt proud.
Walking out of that ambulance today, I felt like one of three heroes. I feel useful. I feel like I’m a part of something meaningful. Making a difference. Today, Wednesday 22nd July 2020, although unexpected, unplanned and unscheduled, marks my first ever “event” as a St John Ambulance First Aider.
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