Honey-Bunny recently read You Called An Ambulance For What? Strange, Serious and Silly Stories of Life As A Paramedic by Tim Booth and was so insistent that I read it for myself that she sent me a copy of the book, even though I am not at all medically-minded and am squeamish when it comes to bodily fluids, broken limbs and really, anything to do with human bodies. Luckily for me, this book did not have pictures.
Tim Booth was a motoring journalist who become a paramedic in south-west Sydney, and wrote about it. His stories of people who called 000 for emergency ambulance attendance included a surprising amount of people with weird objects stuck where they shouldn't have gone, many, many people who weren't actually sick, a large number of people who were sick but not so sick that they required emergency treatment or transporting to hospital and an enormous amount of people who were simply rorting the health system. In between the time-wasters, the author and his colleagues were often desperately needed to help injured or ill people.
While many of the stories were very funny, there was a also a serious side to the story. The messages I took from this book are as follows:
1. Don't phone for an ambulance unless you actually need one. While the ambulance officers are tied up with you because you called them for a blocked nose (telling the emergency services operator that you couldn't breathe), they may be required at an actual emergency to save someone's life.
2. Paramedics burn out very quickly. These hard-working people deal with idiots, work horrible hours and are desperately under-resourced.
The author's frustration with the health system cut through the humour, loud and clear.
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