Holywell paramedic thanked by Corwen crash victim for saving his life
Written by AdministratorA PARAMEDIC has been praised for his hard work by a man whose life he saved.
Gareth Williams, a paramedic for the Mid Wales Air Ambulance, arrived at the scene of a car crash near Corwen, where he found Corwen hotelier David Cowan injured on the A5104.
Mr Cowan was on his way home from lunch with his daughter in Chester last April when a vehicle came towards him on the wrong side of the road and collided with him head on.
The driver of the other vehicle was jailed in December after admitting dangerous driving.
“We saw two vehicles both with severe front end damage which indicated a high speed frontal collision,” said Mr Williams of Holywell.
“Mr Cowan was in his driver’s seat. I could see he had a very serious leg injury and he looked very pale and agitated with blueing to his lips.”
Mr Williams, who is also team manager for Denbigh Community First Responders, gave Mr Cowan oxygen and assessed his circulation.
“His pulse was rapid and weak and his breathing was rapid and shallow” he added.
He was moved onto a spinal board and into the ambulance.
“Mr Cowan kept saying he couldn’t breathe, his breathing was getting shallower and his colour worse,” he added. “I listened to his chest and found no breath sounds on his right hand side and I percussed his chest which sounded loud and hollow, a sign of a collapsed lung.
“I could see his life was in danger of slipping away. I inserted a large cannula into the chest cavity to allow the pressure to escape and allow the lungs and heart to expand and work.”
Gareth and David met recently and David thanked him for saving his life.
David said: “I am so grateful to Gareth, thanks to him I am still here.”
Paramedic blames inexperience for failure to treat dying patient Featured
Written by Administrator
A paramedic says he wasn’t taking part in a union-directed go-slow campaign during the 2009 city workers’ strike when he refused to attend to a dying man for more than 35 minutes while waiting for police backup.
Paramedic Trevor Cornwell said his slow response to help James Hearst wasn’t influenced at all by a union email sent out after the strike began, which stated, “Do not compromise care by rushing. One call at a time.”
His comment came on Wednesday amid sometimes withering questions at the coroner’s inquest into Hearst’s death on June 25, 2009. The 59-year-old collapsed and died of a heart attack in the lobby of his apartment building on Alexander St., near Yonge and College Sts.
It was Cornwell’s first public comment on Hearst’s death. Under questioning from inquest counsel Stefania Fericean, he blamed a lack of “road sense” and training for a decision by himself and his partner, Hayley Rothwell-Cusak, to park nearby and wait for police to lead them to the apartment building.
The inquest has heard that they didn’t go to the scene, drive past it or even peek out at the apartment building from near the corner of Yonge and Alexander Sts., where they waited more than 35 minutes for a police escort. The inquest also heard there never was any report of violence at the building.
Asked if the city workers’ strike had any effect on their decision to wait for a police escort, Cornwell replied: “Absolutely not.”
The paramedics had been on strike three days when Hearst died.
When Cornwell and Rothwell-Cusak finally headed to the building, it took them more than four minutes to travel less than a block.
It took another minute to get inside to Hearst. Cornwell said they weren’t deliberately trying to go slow, even though they were passed by a fire truck also heading to the scene from the other side of Yonge St. They were also beaten to the apartment by another ambulance.
“This particular evening was no different than any other evening for me,” Cornwell said.
The inquest has heard it was their second “staging” — refusing to go to a scene without police escort — that evening. There have been no details of the other staging.
The burly 6-foot-3 paramedic said they decided the scene might be dangerous even though they heard no reports of weapons or violence.
Under often withering cross-examination from government lawyer Emtiaz Bala, Cornwell said he had never heard that the apartment building at 40 Alexander St. was a particularly dangerous spot.
Cornwell said they continued to worry the scene might be dangerous, even though a dispatcher was getting cellphone updates from a female security guard in the lobby where Hearst lost consciousness.
Cornwell said he and Rothwell-Cusak lacked the necessary experience to accurately assess possible dangers to themselves at the scene.
He also testified that the call wasn’t originally a high-priority one for an incident of a life-threatening nature.
At the time of the call, Cornwell had been on the job for a year while Rothwell-Cusak had worked just four shifts. It was their first time working together, Cornwell said.
“Do you think that either of you had any road sense at that point?” Fericean asked.
“No,” Cornwell replied, then added: “In Hayley’s case, none. In mine, very little. ... I learn new things every day on this job.”
Cornwell said he was at a loss to explain his actions when ordered by a supervisor to file a report on his lack of action that evening. “I didn’t know what to write ... how to get all of my thoughts on paper clearly.”
Fericean pressed him to elaborate.
“The entire call and how it went so horribly wrong,” Cornwell replied. “It turned out our assumptions were totally wrong.”
Fericean asked him to explain how they concluded the apartment lobby might be dangerous for them.
“There was no information about weapons?” Fericean asked.
“No.”
She then asked if there were ever any reports about ongoing violence.
“No,” Cornwell replied.
He was asked why they didn’t park across the street, rather than around the corner on Yonge St.
“If someone came running out, it would have put us in harm’s way.”
Bala asked him if he told Rothwell-Cusak she should pull the ambulance ahead 10 metres, so they could peek out at the building.
“Did I tell her to drive?” Cornwell replied. “Not that I remember.”
Bala asked if he told his less-experienced colleague to drive to the building after the call was upgraded to one of a life-threatening nature.
“I don’t remember telling her to just go,” Cornwell said.
He acknowledged he didn’t follow several protocols about staging that evening, including one which calls on paramedics to get regular scene safety updates from a dispatcher.
Asked if he would request such updates on a similar call today, Cornwell said: “I would demand.”
The inquest continues.
Police Beat Man in Diabetic Shock – and Nevada City Pays for It Featured
Written by Administrator
A Nevada city will pay a diabetic man $158,500 after police beat him while he was in diabetic shock, thinking he was a drunken driver.
The Henderson, Nev., city council approved the settlement on Tuesday for the physical and emotional distress endured in late 2010 by the man, who asked not to be identified.
“It’s alarming and it’s egregious,” the man’s attorney, Todd Moody, told ABC 13 Action News. “It will make you a little sick to your stomach watching it.”
The incident was caught by the dash cam of a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper present during the incident, which began as a chase in the early morning hours of Oct. 29, 2010. Police suspected the man was driving drunk.
It was not clear why the man led police on a chase.
The video showed that once the car was pulled over, police officers swarmed the driver and began kicking him.
“Stop resisting motherf****r. Stop resisting motherf****r,” an officer yelled as the man lay on the ground.
However, the man was not drunk – he was suffering a diabetic episode. Insulin shock can mimic the symptoms of intoxication.
“They should have been aware of that,” Moody told ABC 13. “They should have been trained on how to handle that and I think they made some assumptions that were wrong.”
Later in the video, the officers appeared to realize the man wasn’t drunk and called for medical help.
“We found some insulin in his pocket,” said an officer. “Tell them to expedite. He’s semi-conscious.”
The $158,000 settlement was in addition to a $99,000 settlement for the man’s wife and $35,000 from the state of Nevada for civil rights violations.
An officer seen in the video kicking the diabetic motorist is Sgt. Brett Seekatz, who has been with the Henderson Police Department since August 2002, ABC 13 reported.
Officials wouldn’t specify how or if Seekatz was disciplined over the incident, saying the information is a personnel matter and will not be released. He remains a member of the Henderson Police Department.
However, the department issued a statement noting changes since the incident.
“Henderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers ordered a closer look at the training Henderson officers receive,” the statement read. “The training on use of force techniques was subsequently modified.”
See Below Advert for Video of the incident
999 patients failed by third of ambulance trusts
Written by Administrator
The Department of Health stipulates that an ambulance should reach 95 per cent of 'Category A' cases - where a person's life is in immediate danger - within 19 minutes.
However, in December four out of England's 12 ambulance services did not manage to reach that figure - double the previous number.
Until then only two were consistently failing to do so - East Midlands and East of England ambulance trusts.
Now North West Ambulance Service and South Central Ambulance Service are on that list as well.
Nationwide, 96.1 per cent of such calls received a response within 19 minutes in December, compared to 96.8 per cent for the eight months from April to December 2011.
Meanwhile, the proportion of Category A cases in which a vehicle was dispatched within seven minutes fell, from 77.1 per cent in November to 74.0 per cent.
A Department of Health spokesman said the increase was due to an increase in demand over the holiday season.
He said: "December saw a greater number of people going to hospital by ambulance than previous months, but despite this, the NHS is still on course to meet its targets by the end of the year."
"Patients should be able to expect a coherent 24/7 urgent and emergency care service which is accessible and safe. We expect all ambulance trusts, commissioners and the wider NHS to look at the data for their region and perform at the highest level."
Gwent 999 response times among Wales’ worst Featured
Written by Administrator
EMERGENCY ambulance response times in Gwent were among the poorest in Wales in December, as a new system of measuring performance was introduced.
Four areas - Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire, Caerphilly and Torfaen - were among the five worst performing of Wales' 22 council areas in terms of responses arriving at the scene within eight minutes.
But the Welsh Government is stressing that the figures are not directly comparable with previous ambulance statistics, as the new system involves around 4,000 more calls to be classed as emergencies, with a consequent increase in category A (immediately life-threatening) calls.
The new system is more focused on improved outcomes for patients and from early in December only the most serious - those category A calls - are guaranteed a blue light response.
All other calls receive either face-to-face or telephone assessment, based on clinical need. The system does away with category B calls, with the most serious of these now recorded as category A calls.
In December, there were almost 36,000 emergency calls, 14,000 of which were category A, with an eight-minute response target.
In Newport, 63.1 per cent of these were answered inside eight minutes, the best result in Gwent and the 10th best in Wales.
But Torfaen (56 per cent), Caerphilly (55.3 per cent), Monmouthshire (54.4 per cent), and Blaenau Gwent (53.9 per cent) were 18th-21st respectively, missing the all-Wales target - 65 per cent or more of category A calls to be reached inside eight minutes - and the 60 per cent target for individual council areas.
The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is analysing the results, and it will be several months before new system trends can be identified.
999 operator sues his ambulance trust employers because he couldn't cope with the pressure of hot desking
Written by Administrator
A 999 operator is suing his bosses after claiming he suffered panic attacks because he didn't have his own desk.
Nathan Roberts, 28, says he was forced to quit because he could not cope with sharing a desk with colleagues.
The father-of-two says he suffers from a 'social anxiety disorder' and should have had a desk specially reserved for him on his arrival at work.
Instead, he claims the ambulance service had a 'hot desking' policy in place which meant desk allocation was a free for all.
Mr Roberts has been given the go ahead by an appeal court judge to take legal action against North West Ambulance Service in Manchester under disability discrimination laws.
If he wins he could receive a pay-out of up to £500,000 - paid for by the taxpayer.
Mr Roberts, of Middleton, Manchester, said the policy of 'hot desking' caused him severe anxiety and stress.
He said: 'With my condition, panic attacks can be triggered by any number of things, including the amount of people in the vicinity, or your environment.
'In that particular seat, my back was to the wall and there was a little window. I could sit there and do my job without fear of anxiety or a panic attack. This was a provision to keep me in the job.
'If employers can't resolve a small issue like this to keep me in the job, then what about people with other disabilities?'
The North West Air Ambulance control Centre in Belle Vue, Manchester, where Nathan Roberts worked
Mr Roberts had been hired as an emergency medical dispatcher in January 2008 to field 999 and non-emergency calls.
At his job interview he disclosed his psychiatric condition which made him disabled in law and was sent to work in a control room with other medical dispatchers.
There were 24 work stations in the room but due to shift patterns operators were given 'hot-desks' and took any available work station when they arrived for work in Belle Vue, Manchester.
After being forced to take time off work for anxiety Mr Roberts asked to sit in a 'less prominent' desk at the back wall next to a window.
And the following year his bosses wrote a letter to managers asking them to ensure Mr Roberts was allowed to sit at that desk and if necessary to reserve it for his arrival.
But the desk was not always available and in August 2009 an agreement was reached that a reserved sign should be put on the desk.
However, no reserved sign was ever put on the desk because it was deemed 'impractical' due to complicated shift patterns which often meant all seats being used when staff shifts overlapped.
Supervisors tried to make the seat available and colleagues using it sometimes had to be moved.
On New Year's Eve 2009 a trainer and two people sitting in adjoining seats had to be moved and Mr Roberts wrote a letter of resignation that night.
Mr Robert's case of constructive dismissal and disability discrimination were initially rejected at an employment hearing in 2010 on the grounds the ambulance service had not applied the hot desk policy to him.
Bosses said Mr Roberts was not required to sit in anywhere other than his preferred seat and was not put at a disadvantage by such a provision.
But Judge David Richardson sitting at an appeal tribunal in London with two colleagues allowed the appeal.
He said Mr Roberts was affected by 'hot desking' because colleagues were still sitting in and intending to use his preferred seat when he arrived for work.
He said: 'It is, we think, arguable that the practice of 'hot desking' placed the claimant at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled.'
The North West Ambulance Service said it could not comment until the Employment Tribunal made its final decision.
A hearing will be arranged at a later date.
Ex-paramedic's grave warning on A&E future
Written by Administrator
A FORMER paramedic has warned there will "not be enough graves" in Llanelli if plans to close Prince Philip Hospital's A&E unit go ahead.
Robert Evans, of Felinfoel, worked as a paramedic in Llanelli for more than 20 years and can recall many incidents where patients "would have died" if they had not been able to go to the town's A&E
Proposals to further cut the current A&E service — which is not 24-hour — are included in all three options put forward by Hywel Dda Health Board as part of their clinical services strategy.
Mr Evans, 50, said: "I can remember jobs in this town where people have been saved by getting to A&E quickly.
Ambulance
"A bus went over in Llwynhendy and there was a gentleman who had ruptured his spleen.
"When we got him to hospital the doctors were on the front door step waiting for our ambulance.
"That was within three or four minutes — if there had not been Prince Philip he would have died."
Mr Evans also recalled a house fire, in which a young girl lost her mother and sisters.
"We took her to Prince Philip with 96 per cent burns," he said.
"That was one little girl surviving and now she has five children — a whole family."
Mr Evans said he could "write a book" with examples of incidents he has been involved with in which he believes patients could have died without Prince Philip Hospital's A&E.
"People don't realise that even if they don't have certain specialist services they can stabilise people," he said.
"Children have gone in with medical conditions and then helicopters land in Bryngwyn School to transport them to specialist hospitals.
"Prince Philip are able to stabilise them.
"Even Glangwili can't cope with some specific injuries — they get transported by helicopter."
And he said the consequences could be dire if the proposals go ahead.
"It will start filling the Box cemetery up," he said. "That's not nice but that's the truth of it.
"I used to be a councillor in Felinfoel, I've been in politics, but now I'm saying forget all the politics.
"We haven't got enough boxes to fill for people if the A&E at Prince Philip closes.
"What they are doing now is going to start filling up the cemeteries.
"Start opening the fields – that's how detrimental it is."
The Fat Ivan allows you to chock open any door with a hinge with minimal effort, no bending or stretching required unlike other door tools. Just put a Fat Ivan in the hinge
, top, middle or bottom, it doesnt matter because Fat Ivan will work on any of them.
- Corrosion resistant, engineered plastic and zinc plated steel
- Compact (4 x 2 x 1 inches) and lightweight (only 5oz)
- Folds up
when not in use, opens quickly for easy insertion - Safe, secure design - never slips off hinges or comes out accidentally
- One handed operation
- Also great for High Rise Emergency Packs
- Will not tear your gear
Fat Ivan was created out of necessity, originally for fire fighters. Fire fighters were tired of carrying wedges that rarely worked or having bulky pieces of welded angled iron hanging out of their po
ckets. Now they dont have to worry about doors closing behind them or their hose lines being pinched under doors thanks to Fat Ivan.
Although originally designed for fire fighters, Fat Ivan also has usefull applications in Spec Ops and Method Of Entry.
WOULD YOU LIKE ONE OF THESE TO REVIEW and KEEP
ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS BEFRIEND 10 PEOPLE, simply visit the Community Frontpage and Log in then befriend at least 10 people, once they have accepted your request and you have a minimum of ten friends GO to the CONTACT US page and simply send us an email telling us which TWO colours the FATIVAN comes in.
Good Luck.
Featured Product
Thursday 3rd & Friday 4th May
lKettering Conference Centre
Kettering, Northants NN15 6PB
 |
