Angry

I have been saving this post for a month or so while the event fades in the memory of the powers-that-be, just to be on the safe side. It was mostly written while I was good and boiling mad.

I’m a bit rattled at the moment. Chap pulled up on double yellows who had just had their elderly Father keel over. Their frantic attempts on the mobile phone to get an ambulance seemed to be getting nowhere, so I stopped by to see if I could assist. I put a call out to CCTV to see if an ambulance had been summoned only to be told bluntly that they wouldn’t or couldn’t do it. I asked the distraught son if I might help and got a nod for my trouble so I took basic observations;

Pulse – No radial, no carotid (Trust me, I do know how to do this).
Breathing – None detectable by hand or mirrored surface.
Pupils – Unresponsive, dilated, no discernible reaction to light.
Flesh tone – already a yellowish cast to the skin with the rubbery
feel and appearance that comes from a complete lack of circulation.

Ambulance turned up at end of street within I think three minutes so they must have been close, I waved it in and passed the information on to the Paramedics. I couldn’t do anything else, so I patted distraught Son on shoulder and left it to the professionals. I still feel pretty awful about it.

Second incident was when a pedestrian had been knocked down and three of us, off our own bat, co-ordinated clearing a path for the ambulance ourselves and directed traffic past the incident via our radios. We do not have the ‘power’ to direct traffic but we did it anyway. The rest of the shift kindly kept off the air while all this was going on and all three of us went back to base thinking we’d done something really worthwhile for once. Not so. We got a bollocking and threat of disciplinary off Senior Manager for not immediately passing it over to the Police (Who were mostly busy with an RTA elsewhere and an armed robbery.). When the Coppers finally got to the incident, at least they had the grace to say thanks. We went straight to the Union and at least got the threat of disciplinary lifted.

There is something seriously wrong with our Senior Management. We do our job, which is supposed to be about ‘keeping the streets clear’ and when we have to demonstrate a little initiative to do the same we get shouted at. I don’t understand what planet he’s on. It sure as hell isn’t this one.

What really pisses me off is the total lack of help I got from one particular CCTV operator, so on top of being upset I’m bloody angry. What upset me even more was being told retrospectively that the procedure had changed.

I have only one response. Damn them all. I will act in accordance with my conscience at all times. If my soi-disant ‘superiors’ don’t like it they can fire me, but I am not mentally equipped to ‘pass by on the other side’ when I may be able to help.