Last FRU Shifts
It’s my last four shifts working on the FRU this week. I go back to working on an ambulance from next week, but I’ll still be doing some overtime shifts on the car.
I’ve not been to anything particularly exciting today – the most promising call being to an 8 year old girl who’d been knocked off her bike and was complaining of back pain, with tenderness over the thoracic and lumbar spine.
Her parents had got her up onto her feet before I’d arrived. I gave them a polite lecture on the necessity of keeping people with back pain still and waiting for us to arrive. I also strongly suggested they buy her a cycle helmet. It has to be said that they didn’t seem overly concerned.
I’ve not been to anything particularly exciting today – the most promising call being to an 8 year old girl who’d been knocked off her bike and was complaining of back pain, with tenderness over the thoracic and lumbar spine.
Her parents had got her up onto her feet before I’d arrived. I gave them a polite lecture on the necessity of keeping people with back pain still and waiting for us to arrive. I also strongly suggested they buy her a cycle helmet. It has to be said that they didn’t seem overly concerned.
written on the PRF by Steve at 7:58 pm
5 Comments:
Cycling without a helmet? An 8 year old?!
I'm 21, and use a cycle helmet. I'm still learning to ride a bike, actually, and fell off it last week. However, even if I felt confident enough to ride without hitting variously rubbish bins, walls, and concrete bollards (I don't go on the roads yet, only cycle paths) I would still be wearing a helmet! The parents should be ashamed of themselves for letting their kid cycle around without proper protection!
Not that a helmet would help with lumbar pain, though moving her was incredibly stupid, if she'd had a broken thoracic vertebrae could've left her paralysed from below the arms down. (Although as someone who got concussed without a helmet, i will admit you should really use them - though really 4 wheels is safer)
*Frowns at unconcerned parents - if it was worth calling an ambulance, it was worth not moving them*
They probably weren't overly concerned because there was nothing wrong with her.
I'm with the not moving her brigade. I was knocked off my bike on a roundabout 20 years ago and the guy that knocked me down then helpfully got me to the side of the road before the ambulance got there. At the time I had very little pain and went home after being checked over. The next day I was back in casualty where they found I'd cracked the base of my spine. I still get raging sciaticca (sp?) when it's cold or damp and will probably have it the rest of my life which is directly traceable to the accident. Never move someone who's been knocked down and never take off a bikers helmet!
Some people never learn though. This last weekend I had an adult woman call after a friend was thrown from a horse, and the horse landed on him. He was in tough shape, even puking blood. The woman on the phone told me she just over-reacted by calling, and that they'd just take him to the hospital themselves, and went to help him get up! I couldn't (and still can't) believe it.
Needless, I convinced them to make him stay where he was at on the ground and sent him an ambulance. It was just unbelievable.
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