Ambulance

This project has been really interesting. I am following an ambulance lady called Lysa Walder who works down in East Croyden. Lysa is actually an ECP (Emergency Care Practitioner). The difference between her and a normal ambulance is that she works in a car and works alone and is basically a first response team. She does an amazing job arriving by herself at any situation not knowing what will present itself. Last week (one day when unfortunately I wasn’t with her) she arrived at a house to what had been a call signaling an unconscious man to be met at the door by his wife saying she had managed to get the machete off him….he had been threatening to kill his 9 year old granddaughter! Lysa has written a book called 999 which is coming out in August – accounts of all her incredible stories!

I have now spent three really interesting days out with Lysa and it amazing to see first hand what a phenomenal job the Ambulance service do and just how lucky we are to have such a public service here in the UK. Some calls are very minor and can be treated on the spot, a little girl who had fractured her arm falling from a climbng frame in the park, another little girl who cut her head jumping on the sofa whilst her mom was been treated in the dentist….all very easy nice cases….others have been a little more ‘intersting’.

(Photo has been removed)

This case was something and I would really appreciate some feedback on your thoughts on this. We got a call through “17 year olf girl, pregnant, assaulted”…when we turned up the police had already arrived and had handcuffed the lad. His gilfriend was in the back of her Nan’s car in hysterics having been beaten and scratched and was very upset verging on hysterical. I started taking a few pictures including the one above and a few wider shots. Then it all started going crazy. People where turning up from all sides….the lad’s mom arrived screaming abuse at the girl calling her a liar….the poor girl completely lost it and was absolutely hysterical….her uncle then started hurling abuse at the lad’s mom…the girls dad arrived and was understandably properly upset…the lad was screaming trying to talk to Liane who had just found out she was pregnant with his child…. and then it all kicked off with everyone hurling abuse at everyone….the police told us to get out of there so we all piled into the Nan’s car and drove off away from the unravelling scene.

Now my question is when it all started escalating I stopped taking pictures, I had a 17-55 lens on and was standing right next to the girls family…I guess the emotion was so high and I was so close to it I was pretty sure they could have very easily have snapped and I would have been in for it…whether it was because I can’t run at the moment and would have been buggered if they had had a go at me or whether because of the sensitivity of the situation I felt it wasn’t appropriate to invade I am not sure…I know I didn’t want to take pictures of the girl….primarily because she was sitting in the back of the car and I was in the front so I would literally have had the camera right in her face and given what had happened I thought i wouldn’t be right – also her dad and her nan who where sitting there were pretty scarry people. I did use the sound recorder though and justified my non photo taking by the fact that this piece of work is actually for the sound piece rather than for just images. And the other thing am I OK putting this picture and all this rabbeting on my blog – is that ethically correct, I obviously didn’t get any consent forms signed by the lad, so in this context am I free to use his picture? Any thoughts/comments gratefully received….

So the day carried on…next incident comes through ‘14 year old boy impaled on metal pole’ luckily he wasn’t impaled but did have a huge nasty and deep gash in his arm from falling on a metal post….he and his mates had been running away from another group of lads who wanted to beat them up.

So we took him to hospital and whilst Lysa was busy checking him in I went back to the car and outside A&E it all kicked off again…a group of lads going at a boy with a cricket bat – 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon right outside A&E in front of 20 people. It was unbelievable. This time I figured there were enough people screaming and ‘involved’ i rushed back to the car to get the 80-200 and by the time I got back they had all run off down an alleyway…they were all ok, the lads all ran off – hoods on – and the poor boy getting thumped cycled off on his bike!! So all in all it was interesting day….not good but certainly an eye opener on what is going on for youngsters out and about in town.

Below are a few ‘fluffier’ pictures…but really what an interesting job the ambulance guys do – everything, everywhere to anybody….and the job is done so well, so professionally and with such warmth, humor and care! I am really looking forward to my next days out and hopefully working on this longer term.

Pauline Goulter, 93, profuse bleeding of left leg following a varicose vein scab been removed. Pauline telling Lysa about her four marriage proposals!

x

Eva, 1 year old, drank bleach left out by her grandmother whislt cleaning. Eva was taken to hospital for observation.

~ by cgapper on July 28, 2008.