Design for Life

I walk down the badly lit path from the road. 'This will be interesting' I think as I descend the wide paved steps towards the house.

I finally find the number we're looking for, this area is notorious for having bad numbering and upside down houses........................... this doesn't bode well for the type of call given.

I knock on the door and hear the faint call of permission to enter.

Its as I feared when I open the door. We enter a landing with two sets of stairs, one going upwards to the living room and kitchen and one descending to the bedrooms.

I enter the bedroom as best I can as the patient is behind the door trying to get up despite having lost the use of one side of his body.

The patient is big, but in a muscle bound way. He's agitated with the oxygen deprivation to his brain because of the stroke he's suffered. He's fighting to get up off the ground insisting, in a slur from his down turned lips, that he's fine.

We work quickly to get him oxygen and fully assess the extent of his new disability and history. He's young, by medical standards for this condition, and has absolutely no control over one side of his body. He could be a good candidate for thrombolysis as the time frame fits but we need to get him to hospital quickly.

We're going to need help to get him out of the house and up the steps to the road. There is not other access for us to do it any other way,

I leave Winch* and head up to the ambulance to get the carry chair and request an extra pair of hands. I'm already sweating with the effort in the cool night and insist to control that it is an 'emergency assist' we require to remove the patient from the premises.

We manage to get the patient into the carry chair but he is fighting us all time, taking his hands out of the straps and leaning dangerously far, towards his good side. The small flight of stairs to get us up to the front door has us panting and struggling to make sure the patient is secure at the same time as trying not to damage ourselves.

We still have another 20 steps to get up outside.

Lightbulb* appears at the front door, he tells us there wasn't a full crew available so they had sent him on the RRU. One extra pair of hands is better than nothing.

We employ the patient's wife to carry the oxygen as Lightbulb, Winch and myself tackle the stairs, that at this time in the morning in the rain is our Everest!

In the back of the ambulance the patient is settled onto the stretcher.

His wife looks up at us and comments "Blimey! You guys are a bit Rosy cheeked!"

We all look at each other, breathing heavy with bright red faces and aching arms. All refraining from saying something we'll maybe regret later.

"Lets just go shall we!"

I take a moment outside to cool down as I close the doors. I have the Manic Street Preachers song rolling around in my head "A Design for Life"...................... hmmmmmm. I wonder if emergency service access was thought of when designing The Concrete Jungle. From experience I'd say no.