My Husband came in from the garden at the end of the afternoon to say that some fingers on his left arm felt numb and that his mouth felt strange. I could see that his mouth was drooping down on the left side so I dialled 999, knowing that this could possibly be the start of a stroke and that every second counted.
The response on the phone was excellent and having been told that an Ambulance was on the way, we were then asked for a few details. Before the call was ended (just a few minutes, ) the ambulance had arrived. The team (Emily and Lee from Saltash) were excellent, reassuring from the moment they arrived. They carried out various checks and asked some key questions and soon became fairly certain that it was not a stroke. They then did an electrocardiagraph just to check that the symptoms were not heart related. The results were good.
They gathered information such as the medications my husband was taking etc and at every step explained what they were doing and why. Lee suspected that it might be a case of Bell's Palsy and said that my husband must see his doctor the following morning.
Both Lee and Emily were professional, efficient, friendly and reassuring. We both felt totally able to trust their judgement and it was wonderful to have peace of mind after the sense of shock when we saw the side of my husband's mouth drooping.
This morning we have visited the doctor, who confirmed that Lee was correct, it is Bell's Palsy. We would like to pass on our sincere thanks to Emily and Lee for all that they did for us.
"Excellent ambulance crew"
About: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust Emergency ambulance Exeter EX2 7HY
Posted by Rose123 (as ),
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