Fast food?

The scene: My local restaurant / take away

The time : Judging by the noises my stomach's making - Dinner Time

Number of people I recognise: Zero (Not unusual for me to survey the scene. I'm suspicious by nature. Very unusual to spot no-one I know)

"You're a paramedic, aren't you?" says the stranger as he taps me on the shoulder. An ominous question if ever I've heard one. I'm not in uniform either, so there's no clue to my identity. I fear a question on athlete's foot, or tennis elbow, or worse... But I'm certain I don't know this person, so I suspect that it's not something quite that trivial. I risk it. "Yes I am..."

"And you went to a car crash on the North Circular Road didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but I've been to far too many car crashes on the A406. It's notorious for them". I try to concentrate on my food order. Undeterred, the gentleman, probably in his late 50's, went on to describe an RTA that I'll never forget.

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The car was stopped in the inside lane with it's hazard lights on after breaking down. The car that used to be a family-sized car looked like a Smart car. In the boot of the car was a large truck. Not the normal thing you tend to carry around in your boot. By the side of the car was a baby seat, with baby still inside, screaming. In the front passenger seat was the driver, who was completely trapped. The reason she was in the passenger seat was because she'd somehow foreseen the imminent danger and had very quickly unbuckled the car-seat and literally thrown the baby out the car before the impact. (I believe that miracles occur all around us, all the time. We just need to open our eyes more...)

Babies screaming is usually, strangely enough, a good sign for a paramedic. As, sometimes, is a screaming adult. But this time the adult was silent. Becky probably in her mid to late 20's, wasn't moving, wasn't talking, yelling, or doing anything. Other than breathing. Very very quickly, but breathing nonetheless. The extrication was time-consuming and difficult. The Fire Brigade cut the already destroyed car into even smaller chunks, and we were able to eventually move Becky out the car. She was strapped to a back-board to ensure her back was kept straight, and had her head and neck immobilised to prevent any spinal or nerve damage occurring or worsening.

In this sort of condition, there is little time to worry about other injuries, but we noticed that she also had a broken arm, broken leg and we had to worry about internal injuries as well. Once Becky was in the ambulance we took her to the nearest trauma centre, along with the screaming baby. Just before pulling into the hospital Becky opened her eyes. She was completely confused, and her instant reaction was one of horror. She wanted to know where her baby was, and if the baby was ok. We showed her the baby, and the weight of the world seemed to lift off her shoulders. She even managed a smile. We handed over our now-no-longer unconscious patient to the hospital team, and went about the mundane tasks of paperwork and tidying up the ambulance before leaving the hospital.

As the hospital is not one to which I regularly take patients, I had no way of following up her progress.

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"Were you one of the paramedics at that crash?"

"Yes, sir, I was. But I don't remember you being there"

"You wouldn't, because I wasn't there. But my daughter Becky was, and she recognised you as soon as you walked in. She's sitting over there at the table. She finally left hospital yesterday, and we're having a family dinner to celebrate! She wants to thank you in person, and wants to know if you'll come over to our table?"

Three months after the crash in which she saved her own baby's life and nearly lost her own, she was able to go out for a family dinner to celebrate her recovery.

We very rarely get to follow up on our patients, and it's even more rare to meet up with them, so it was an exceptional moment for both patient and paramedic. "Thank you. So, so much" said Becky. Her eyes welled up with tears and she gave me a hug that seemed to convey all the anger, confusion, frustration, sadness and eventual joy of the past few months, in just one moment.

And all I wanted was some fast food for dinner...