Long term readers of The ThunderDragon will know that the Dragon is a volunteer with St John Ambulance. And, if you've got a particularly good memory, you'll remember that I've been on several duties with the man himself.

I'm still hard at work volunteering, including my latest role doing Patient Transport work - mainly inter-hospital transfers and discharges. Sometimes, it's great fun - a talkative old lady who needs a lift home. Sometimes, with High Dependency work, it's particularly sad.

Of note was one job a few weeks ago.

We went to the ward to collect this frail old lady, who literally was no more than skin and bones. We had to be really careful sliding her from bed to our stretcher so as not to cause injury. She was also not able to talk. I don't know what her medical conditions were exactly, but she was only able to mumble.

It makes it so awkward to know what to day. Obviously, you tell the patient what you're doing - "We're going to sit you up now" etc. But, during the journey, I had to try and make conversation. I couldn't leave it as silence - it makes the patient feel unwanted. What to talk about though? Is it going in? Does she understand it? There's no way of knowing.

And then we left her at this nursing home, to sit in her bed, with only a carer to talk to her and notice her once in a while. Perhaps she had family to pop in once in a while. Perhaps not.

It's sad.

It's a real problem though. Say she did have family. No doubt they feel extremely guilty about leaving her in such a home. But, if one of your parents gets to the stage when they need 24hour care (especially if you're an only child as myself) what can you do?

I'm sure that everyone would want to look after them personally. Think about it - your Mum looked after you in your formative years, you'll be reciprocating. But, even as a trained Health Care Worker, I'm not sure I could cope. Giving up a job, all social life, devoting your time - and instead of there being progress as there is with tending to a baby, things get harder. There's an end with looking after a child - a bouncing toddler walking for themselves and starting to talk. The only end with caring for an elderly relative is a funeral.

I don't have statistics or anything, but I'm sure that most people at some point have to say enough is enough and put their relative into a care home. But, where? You don't need to read many ambulance blogs to hear about "Don't care homes" - I've seen them myself - but it can be difficult to spot them on a 'visit'. Regardless of that, there'll never be someone with the constant supervision that you can offer at home. The elderly far too often find themselves lying, staring at the ceiling, as all of their hard earned savings flow away into paying for such an life.

You can see a lot doing my 'job'. You learn to take most of it without much effect - it's not callous, it's the only way. But, every time I see one of these patients, I think of the sad and meaningless existence many people suffer in the last months of their life. That's the thing that gets me.

Asp

The number of volunteers in Britain has fallen by a quarter in the past decade. I'm not overly surprised by that, even if a quarter is a large number. But I don't think that it can possibly be claimed to be directly the government's fault for failing to support them.

Volunteers don't volunteer because the government does or doesn't support them - they volunteer to do some good in their community or elsewhere. They volunteer to help others in some way. What the State thinks matters little to them.

Instead, it is indirectly the government's fault. This is because they have fostered a society of reliance on the State rather than the individual. At the same time as this, they have made it progressively harder to volunteer - CRB forms being quite possibly the biggest offender. Not because they are in themselves a bad idea, but just because the Criminal Records Bureau are so damn slow! They have also extended it to cover too many situations.

I am both a Scout leader and a St John Ambulance first aider. I don't do them for purely altruistic reasons, because I do them because it makes me feel good to have done them. There are two ways that people decide to become Scout leaders or otherwise involved in the Movement: (a) Their children join Scouts and they get dragged in, or (b) they are Scouts and want to give others the chance to do it. That's my reason. I am a Scout leader because I want to pass on the fantastic knowledge and experience that I got as a Beaver, Cub, Scout and Venture Scout. I want todays children to be able experience it as well.

Some people forget - or simply don't realise - that Scout leaders and first aiders don't get paid. They get nothing from doing it but the experience and knowledge that they are doing something good. It was fantastic to see the Scout contingent in the Remembrance Sunday parade yesterday and the voice-over reminding people of this fact - it is all voluntary.

The reason the number of volunteers has declined is because the government has indirectly stifled independent charity in favour of State redistribution. But nobody works for the State for free, yet thounsands will work for charities for free. The amount of paperwork surrounding volunteer charities needs to shrink, and it needs to be simplified. Or else the volunteer won't be just an endangered species, but an extinct one.

Source: The Telegraph

I'll be out all day again today - on another St. John Ambulance duty. This time on dry land, however, and with a far greater likelihood of injuries [yay!*].

We are providing cover for the Colchester Military Festival, which should at the very least be fun to watch.

The festival is also the official focus for the British Army's Falklands Commemorations.

So again I urge you to try out the other blogs in my sidebar, and enjoy this video of Springtime for Hitler...



* It is a very strange feeling when you want people to hurt themselves... You get used to it though.

It is unlikely that there will be any more posts today, because I am doing a duty for St. John Ambulance on a boat with Asp. [Note to sailors: don't drown.]

For other blogs to read, try out those in my sidebar and especially other Blogpower bloggers.

Also check out this new blog, The Final Redoubt, by Harry Hook. He hasn't written much yet, but it promises to be good.

UPDATE: That was a looong tiring day - and yet no injuries...

Morning has broken - and it broke without warning whilst I was standing outside waiting for an ambulance. Last night (and this morning) I was on duty as a St. John Ambulance first aider on my university campus during the event known as "The End" - the night after all exams have finished.

Thus we started on duty for 10pm, having been there earlier for briefings etc., and almost immediately started receiving casualties of the type that were to be by far the most common over the night - cuts, specifically to the feet. Most of these were caused in girls who were wearing, of all things, sandals and flip-flops on a night known for the amounts of broken glass that litters the ground of the "squares" in the university. Idiots.

Another common cause of patients was sheer drunkenness, usually accompanied by vomiting and other leaking of bodily fluids. Lovely, indeed. For the vast majority of these there was little we could do except wait with them until they sobered up enough to go home alone, or friends willing to look after them were found.

And this continued all night, with injuries of various degrees of seriousness, 26 over the night, six of which went to hospital by ambulance, plus several others who were advised to make their own way. With the eleven first aiders we had on duty, we just about had enough - there were, however, situations when a couple extra would have been useful. This can be contrasted with the six first aiders which the Students Union Ents team had originally only wanted us to provide (because they would have to pay for them) but eventually a compromise of nine had been arrived at - still below what we provided and which would not have been enough for the number of injuries we received, especially considering the cupboard-sized first aid room we are given to use [literally, it fits one stretcher and two chairs in it. And that is all.].

Eventually we finished at around 3.30am, having finally got to a stage where we could finish. But the night was not over yet - for as a few of us made our way off campus, we were called to yet another patient. This man had quite obviously been taking a lot of drugs, although he absolutely refused to admit it - it was obvious through his mannerisms, huge pupils, and constant teeth-grinding. But there was nothing that we could do for him, although he was eventually sent off in an ambulance, that was more due to there being no way that he could get home than due to any real medical need.

One of the most annoying things about being on duty surrounded by drunks is that there is always at least one or two who approach offering "help" with providing first aid cover, citing a course taken in school or Scouts and the like several years previously. Like the idiot today who approached a drunk we were dealing with - despite there being three of us standing around her in bright green jumpsuits and hi-vis jackets. People like that annoy me.

Eventually I got home, at around 5am or so after a very long day - and whilst we had been treating our extra patient, the sun had dawned and night had turned into day. So instead of going to bed when I got home, I had a bath to remove the almost-certainly lingering smell of vomit, shit, dried blood, sweat, and stale beer. And now I feel much, much better. Though tired - but I can't go to bed because I'll sleep the entire day away!

Morning has thus broken - even though I haven't actually got to bed.

There will be no posts tomorrow as I am going be doing on duty as a St. John Ambulance first aider at the Southend Air Show. which requires a lot of them. It is the largest free air show in Europe, and even though the weather is crappy, I'm sure plenty of people will still turn up to watch the Red Arrows and the other planes fly.

It's going to be a long, long day - I'm going to have to leave home at 5am, and I' be surprised if I'm back before 10pm, since we have to go by train.

I see the job of St. John first aiders as preventing paramedics being called out where they are not needed, so that they can focus on the truly important and life-threatening injuries. It is good to know, however, that 'Johnnies' can indeed save lives when needed [via BritBlog Roundup 119]. Well done to that man! Though I hope I never need to perform CPR for real, I do the training so that I can if I need to.

UPDATE: I just got back - at 7pm, so a 14-hour rather than 17-hour day. The trains were surprisingly more effective than I had thought, and due to the weather conditions [which we weren't allowed to talk about] we were all stood down far earlier than anticipated. Few injuries though, unfortunately, but the Red Arrows were fantastic as usual. It was cold and wet and yucky all day, so now I'm going to go and have a nice relaxing bath, and then I might go down the pub.