2020-04-12
4171
a. the time the ambulance arrived
b. summary of events
c. the part of a large vehicle where the driver sits
d. child
e. death
f. recovery
PHONE CALLS
| 1 Log Book | Time of call: 06.50 | |||
| Location of emergency | 14 Friars Walk | |||
| Name of caller | Staff nurse Jenny Lewis | |||
| Nature of emergency | Suspected cardiac arrest | |||
| Synopsis | Victim is caller's 56-year-old male neighbour. Caller reports victim has abdominal pains and is sweating and vomiting. | |||
| Action taken | Ambulance is dispatched. ETA: 07.10 | |||
| Follow-up | Heavy traffic and so ATA was 07.50. Victim DoA at hospital. | |||
| 2 Log Book | Time of call: 09.23 | |||
| Location of emergency | 2 km north of motorway junction 17 | |||
| Nature of emergency | RTA | |||
| Synopsis | Lorry driver is trapped in his cab but no other vehicles are involved | |||
| Action taken | Police and fire service are notified and ambulance dispatched | |||
| Follow-up | The driver was released and transferred to hospital. He had no serious injuries and was discharged later. | |||
| 3 Log Book | Time of call: 14.20 | |||
| Location of emergency | Central park north side perimeter fence | |||
| Name of caller | Mr. Fred Thomas (park keeper) | |||
| Nature of emergency | Juvenile trapped in park railings | |||
| Synopsis | Victim has put her legs through railings. They have become swollen and she is unable to free herself. Caller reports no bleeding and the victim is fully conscious | |||
| Action taken | Fire service is notified. Ambulance is dispatched. | |||
| Follow-up | Ambulance was not required. Fire officer used hydraulic equipment to force open the railings and free the girl. Hospital attendance was not necessary. | |||
| 4 Log Book | Time of call: 22.10 | |||
| Location of emergency | High Street outside Lock Building | |||
| Name of caller | Male caller refuses to give his name.
| |||
| Nature of emergency | Possible suicide attempt | |||
| Synopsis | Caller reports seeing victim jump from the roof of the building. | |||
| Action taken | Ambulance is dispatched and police are notified | |||
| Follow-up | Police officer reported fatality. Foul play is suspected and a murder investigation has been opened. | |||
| 5 Log Book | Time of call: 00.00 | |||
| Location of emergency | 332 Rio Road | |||
| Name of caller | Shareen Heslop | |||
| Nature of emergency | Non-emergency | |||
| Synopsis | Caller reports injured wild bird | |||
| Action taken | Animal rescue notified | |||
| Follow-up | The bird was taken to an animal sanctuary for treatment and rehabilitation. | |||
You are in a light aircraft when it crashes into the jungle. Your radio is broken so you can't call for help. There are two of you and you must get ready to walk 100 kilometres to safety. You already have clothes, food, and water.
You can take only ten more things with you - five from each list. Discuss what to take with your partner and explain your reasons.
Vocabulary
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| MEDICAL | GENERAL |
| bandages | a torch | |
| a scalpel | a box of matches | |
| a snake bite kit | soap | |
| morphine | a mirror | |
| aspirin | a compass | |
| disposable gloves | a knife | |
| a thermometer | scissors | |
| tweezers | fish hooks | |
| a first aid manual | large plastic bags | |
| hypodermic needles | a cooking pot | |
| adhesive tape | a mosquito net |
Taxi drivers in Bangkok are now being trained to help women give birth. An estimated 300—400 women in the city give birth in taxis or tuk-tuks on the way to hospital each year.
Reading
Look at the pictures. What do you think the article is about?
Discuss these questions with a partner.
1. Have you ever helped with a birth? How was it?
2. Were you born in hospital, at home, or somewhere else?
3. Have you heard of any births that happened in an unusual place?
Read the text and answer the questions.
1. Was this Clive's first experience of a birth?
2. Who gave instructions to Clive?
3. Who is Mohammed Clive?
4. How is the baby now?
Work in pairs. Cover the article. Can you remember the midwife's instructions? Look at the words below to help you remember.
| mother's chest | nose and mouth | umbilical cord |
| medical help | back | head |
| blanket | towel |
British taxi driver, Clive Lawrence, became a midwife for an hour when a passenger gave birth to a baby in the back of his taxi.
Asha Gemechu's baby was due in a month, but when her contractions started she called for a taxi to take her to hospital. Mr. Lawrence answered the call.
The expectant mum was in the taxi for ten minutes when she realized that things were happening too fast. The baby was not going to wait. Its head appeared, and Mr. Lawrence stopped the taxi to help with the birth.
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Mr. Lawrence said, 'I was there when my kids were born, so this was not completely new for me. I spoke to a nurse on the taxi radio and she gave me instructions - I only did what she told me. There's nothing special about that. One minute I had one passenger, then I had two, but there's no extra charge!''
A midwife at the hospital said, 'Giving birth on the way to hospital doesn't happen often, but if you're there when it does, just support the baby's head and guide it out - don't pull. Then clean the baby's nose and mouth, but don't cut the umbilical cord - just lay the baby on the mother's chest, cord and all. Dry the baby with a clean towel or cloth, gently rub its back, then cover mum and baby with a dry blanket to keep them both warm, and wait for medical help to arrive.'
'Clive was wonderful,' the mother said later, 'he did everything right.'
Asha is naming the baby Mohammed Clive. Mother and baby are both doing well.
Writing
Accident report
1. Listen to a police officer talk to a nurse about the RTA in Listening. Take notes about what happened.
2. Write a report about the accident. Describe what happened (draw a diagram if necessary).
Include in the report your own opinion about whether or not the driver should have been driving. Say what, if anything, could have been done to avoid the accident. Make recommendations for what should be done to reduce the number of RTAs in your country.
It's my job
Without looking at the list of abbreviations say which of these abbreviations medical problems are and which are medical staff.
Fx SHO S/N CVA
Read the text and answer the questions.
1. Why does Heidi not mind the stress of her job?
2. Why is 'triage nurse' a suitable job title?
3. What is Heidi's rank?
4. What is the A&E doctor's rank?
5. What does Heidi like best about the job?
6. Why will the patient with the eye problem not be keeping his medicines in his desk drawer in future?
Have you heard any stories of strange or stupid accidents and emergencies? Tell your partner.
Heidi Vettraino
A repetitive job is my idea of a nightmare, which is why I work in A&E. It's stressful, sometimes shocking, and often very upsetting, but I wouldn't change it for anything.
I specialize in emergency triage. 'Triage' means 'sorting' and that's what I do. I sort out patients in A&E according to the nature and severity of their illness so that the doctors see the most severe cases first and we don't waste precious time on non-emergencies. You could say that's like specializing in everything. You don't know what's going to pop up next - it could be an accident with multiple Fx, a sick baby, or a CVA. The day before yesterday a farming accident came in - a man had cut his hand off with a chainsaw.
When the ambulance brought the patient in, he was haemorrhaging badly and we had to open up an airway and get him on a ventilator immediately. He's OK. He's in ICU, but not on the critical list any more.
That was the same day a woman came in complaining of terrible pain in her feet. I was the S/N on duty and I categorized her as a non-emergency. She sat waiting for four hours before finally seeing the SHO. You'll never guess what the problem was. Her shoes were too tight!
The best thing about A&E work is the people you work with. Everyone pulls together, we're all equal, and everyone shares the same sense of humour, which is essential. Sometimes you've got to see the funny side or give up all hope for human beings. Last week, for example, an ambulance brought a man in who was unable to open his eyes. Being short-sighted, he had reached for his eye drops and didn't see that he had picked up a tube of superglue instead. Poor man!
We bathed his eyes for an hour and very slowly separated his
eyelids. He was able to laugh about it with the A&E staff afterwards,
but in the future he won't be keeping his medicines in his desk drawer.
In 1917, an Australian outback farmer seriously injured himself in a fall. Because the nearest doctor was 3,000 km away, the local postmaster operated on the farmer's bladder using a penknife whilst receiving Morse code instructions by telegraph. The patient survived the operation, but not the journey to hospital later.
What famous Australian medical service was created because of incidents like this?
Reading
Air ambulance
Discuss with a partner the advantages of air ambulances like the one in the picture.
Read the text and compare your ideas with what the article says.
Read the text again and choose the correct answer.
1. The idea of an air ambulance came from the need to
a. limit a patient's movements
b. move treatment fast to sick people
c. move patients fast but gently.
2. Letting wounded soldiers die is
a. cheaper than evacuating them by helicopter
b. economically necessary
c. inefficient.
- The first medical rescue by helicopter was
a. a response to an accident
b. a military exercise
c. after a battle.
- The equipment in a Sikorsky YR-4 helicopter is
a. elementary
b. sophisticated
c. complex.
- The main problem for helicopter pilots is that they
a. cannot see where they are flying
b. cannot fly when they cannot see
c. cannot use VFR.
- Air ambulances are best employed for patients who
a. are non-emergencies
b. will probably die
c. may live.
Rescue from the Air
When you cannot move treatment quickly to sick people, you have to move sick people quickly to treatment. The problem is that when someone is severely injured, movement can kill and so anything that can both speed up the journey and minimize the shock is a life-saver. This is why, over a hundred years ago, a long time before the development of aircraft, someone came up with a design for an 'air ambulance'. The idea was to put wounded people on a stretcher which was held in the air by balloons and pulled along by horses. Warfare has encouraged progress in ambulance technology. It is expensive and wasteful to let soldiers die on a battlefield and saving their lives justifies the expense of using aircraft (particularly helicopters) to transport casualties to hospital. In fact, the first time a helicopter was used for a medical rescue was in Burma in 1945 by the American military. A soldier on a jungle-covered mountain accidentally shot himself with a machine gun. There were no medics and the area was so wild that it would have taken ten days for a rescue party to reach the wounded man. A Sikorsky YR-4 helicopter - very basic by modern standards - was sent out. It had no radio and navigated by flying low over the treetops, but the pilot completed his mission and the soldier's life was saved.
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Even today, helicopters are limited by weather and darkness. Unlike aeroplanes, which have radar and computers, many helicopters have only essential flight equipment and pilots have to fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) which means they can only fly when they can see. However, the great value of a helicopter is that it can land and take off vertically and provide speed and comfort, which are not luxuries when it comes to saving lives and a helicopter can make a huge difference in a rural area where response time is normally slow. Air ambulances can increase the chances of survival of patients whose injuries are severe but survivable; an important factor to consider when sending one out.
