"The ambulance team looked after us"

When my husband collapsed on Sunday afternoon in mid November. I really wasn’t sure it was anything serious - I thought he’d just got some kind of sickness bug and had fainted on his way to the bathroom …. but there was something about the cold claminess of his skin that made me feel uncertain. 

He didn’t want to be moved from the bathroom floor, he just wanted a pillow under his head. I made him as comfortable as I could and looked quickly online to check if this was likely to be anything more than a sickness bug. 

There was definitely a suggestion in what I was reading that this could be a medical emergency so I decided to phone 111 for some advice. However when I got through I was told via an automated message that the lines were busy and it could be some time before I got a call back…. By which time, I thought, if it was an emergency, it could be too late!

When I went back to my husband he’d managed to get himself on to the bed. It was only then he mentioned bad indigestion and pain in his neck and up into his head. Like the claminess, these words were triggers in my mind. I asked him if he thought I should phone 999 and he said he wasn’t sure... which I knew, from him, meant yes, definitely, now!

So I phoned, half expecting to be told just to contact my GP if he wasn’t better in the morning, but when the call handler asked if I had any aspirin in the house, I knew we were talking heart attack! Still, she was so calm, I thought she was just being extra cautious. She told me the ambulance was on its way and that she had to take another call.  

I was a bit embarrassed about troubling the ambulance people and set about putting on all the lights at the front of the house, so it was obvious for the ambulance and busied myself looking out things that might be needed for a lengthy wait in A&E… or possibly an overnight in hospital. I assumed I’d have plenty of time because you always hear about people having to wait hours for an ambulance, but ours arrived within minutes - it was amazing!

And that’s when the paramedics Barry and George come into the story. They were so calm and methodical as they asked their questions and worked away together like a well oiled machine: giving medication and opening sterile packs, attaching electrodes and doing the ECG, explaining everything as they went. There was no sense of rush or panic…..It couldn’t really be an emergency, could it?!

And then quite calmly they told us that he had had a heart attack and they’d phone the cardio team at ARI with their findings and see what they wanted to do, but they’d probably just want to take him straight into theatre. I was stunned.

What I appreciated so much about all this was not just the quiet professionalism, but the sheer kindness of these two guys, not just to my husband, but to me, too, just in little gestures, a reassuring touch on the arm,  an occasional checking if am I OK? Just that sense of  they know this is a big deal for me too, and they’re here for me as well

I don't drive so was allowed to go with them in the ambulance. I’m not sure whether that’s often allowed, but it was a huge deal for me to be able to be there with my husband right up until we got to hospital.

Once we got to the hospital I was asked to go to the relatives room while nursing staff got my husband ready for surgery… and Barry and George even took the time to stop past and say cheerio as they were leaving!

It was just the sheer kindness of these guys that touched me so deeply. George even came up to the find him the next day when he was parked up outside, and see how he was doing. What amazing care… and so nice for my husband to be able to say thank you personally to one of the guys who very probably saved his life!