I'm typing through that familier feeling of muzzyheadedness, bone weariness and the fact that my eyes seem to be acting just that little bit slower than I want them to. This is what I feel like after a night shift.

A busy night. I know I say that a lot but tonight was a bit different. The town where I live and work has a population of about a quarter of a million and last night there was one ambulance and one car on duty. Three people. It was very, very lucky nothing major happened.

The night shift was bookended by drunk east europeans. The first one had a fight with a car, and lost. He had a lovely semi-circular hole in the back of his hand. After we had cleaned it up a bit and had a look we could see all the tendons working when he moved his fingers. Sort of like in the film Terminator (but without the guns)

Then off to a dont-care home. A lady who had been ill for a couple of days but had got steadily worse and was now not responding at all. We were greeted by a member of staff for who English was a second language, or maybe a third. She led us to see the lady. We walked in a could see that she was twitching. She had parkinsons, but this wasn't a parkinson twitch.

She was having a fit.

"How long has she been doing this?" I asked

Smile, "What?"
 
"Twitching like this"

Smile "Twitching?"

"This", I gestured

"Two hours"

Two Hours

This lady wasn't well and we both knew it. I don't think the care assistant did though.

I got a bit short with her and sent her off to get her notes so we could find out any medical history. My crewmate went to get a carrychair so we could get her to the ambulance. She was on Oxygen so I made a phonecall.

I rang control to find out where the nearest paramedic was. This was a judgement call, a paramedic can give her drugs to stop her fitting but will it be quicker to get her to hospital?
 
The nearest paramedic was thirteen miles away and we were five minutes from the hospital

Peddle to the metal.

It turns out she had a very bad infection somewhere as her temperature was quite high as well. She was admitted to hospital but whether she'll come out again I don't know.

The University students are back so we spent the next three or four hours picking up girls who had had their drink spiked, people who had collapsed for no apparent reason and people who had had decided to have a fight.
 
Then to a guy who had been in hospital earlier because he was absolutely bladdered. He had discharged himself with a canula in his hand. He was on his way back to get it taken out but was standing on a wall and then fell off.

He landed flat on his face and broke his nose. Lots of blood.

And finally to Tesco's carpark to see a drunken pole who kept telling us he couldnt walk as he walked round. He wanted to go to hospital. I couldnt be bothered to argue

I think he wanted somewhere to sleep