Bless their little cotton socks - They are changing the Comment system back to something even more reasonable.  You've got to appreciate anyone who notes that their users don't like the new feature - and actually change things for the better.

Do you think Microsoft would do such a thing?

It looks like a cheaper version of the Segway will be making its way to the UK in the next couple of months.
What this means is that there will just be more ways for people to injure themselves - even if it is allowed on the pavement, the streets around here require four-wheel off-road capability. I have visions of people falling off at 10mph wearing no safety equipment.
...Pardon me while I have a little giggle...

Blogware have changed the commenting system for their Blog system, (You know...the one I use because I love it so).  Now you have to open the post entry to leave a comment.  I don't think that anyone has had a nice thing to say about it.  Although I don't get comments left on this page, (nobody loves me...sniff) it would be nice, that should the urge take you, that it be fairly easy to leave your comment.

Here is hoping that they change it back.

Much like Michael Honey I have too many books and not enough time to read them.  At the moment I'm trying to get enough peace and quiet to sit down and really enjoy Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver"; it's one of those books that I'd love to spend a day or two just enjoying.  Unfortunately I have to read books in fits and starts, just because I'm too damn busy.  M, (Hi M!) keeps threatening to lend me books, but I have too many things on my plate.

There are however books that I can read in the quiet moments at work.  It only really happens with non-fiction, as my memory is so bad, I very quickly lose track of the plot of fiction books.  The book I'm reading at present is "London - The Biography"; very well written with each chapter taking on a topic rather that a period of time.  It is a huge book, but can easily be put down and picked up again (using my Underground ticket as a bookmark).  Diamond Geezer already reviewed it, and I've already got the other books in his Christmas present list.  It goes to show that "great minds think alike".

The 2001 Census has been used to show why I am so busy. According to National Statistic Online, Asians consider themselves to have the worst health with Bangladeshi men three times more likely to visit their GP than the "general population". Couple this with Newham having a 32.5% Asian population (compared to 4.6% nationwide); is it no wonder that we are run off our feet dealing with GP case-work. Couple this with the fact that Asians are 46-51% more likely to suffer from heart disease than the general population, and I can see why I never have time for a cup of tea on station.
Still, if I wanted a quiet life I'd work in Suffolk.

Although I often moan about the idiocy of other peoples driving when faced with a big white van with blue flashing lights on top; I am sometimes pleasantly surprised at the lengths some people will go to in order to get out of the way.  For example, yesterday we had people nearly grounding their cars on roundabouts and roadside verges, squeezing into parking spots I wouldn't be able to fit a mini cooper in and swearing at other drivers who wouldn't move out of the way.  I've had workmen stand in the middle of the road and stop traffic, lollypop ladies fence off crossings with their "lollypops" and van drivers who I have 'clipped' while squeezing past them wave me on and tell me, "don't worry about a little damage".

Yesterday we had all the above on one call (except hitting a van driver), it was like the Red sea parting before us.  It was a beautiful thing to behold; it left us in awe and wonder.

Shame we were going to two year old with a cough.

There are some people, who despite their personality, you dread working with; one of these people is Noddy (not his real name).  He is what is known in the trade as a "trauma magnet".  He's one of those people who will get the cardiac arrests, car crashes, shootings and stabbings; by contrast I am a "shit magnet", meaning I only seem to pick up people who don't need an ambulance.  Other than having to do some real work for a change I really enjoy working with him.

So I was working with him a little time ago and we got called to a suspended, basically this is someone who's heart isn't beating and they have stopped breathing.  It's one of those jobs that require us to work hard trying to save the punters life.  We got to the address and found relatives performing CPR on their gran.  You might have seen it on T.V as a "Cardiac Arrest".

(Let me correct a few ideas you might have about resuscitation.  First, it rarely works, "Casualty and E.R." have led people to believe that you often save people; I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who have survived an arrest and most of them arrested while I was watching them in hospital.  Secondly, it isn't pretty, when you arrest there is often vomit, faeces, urine and blood covering the patient and the area around them.  Finally, people never suspend where you can reach them, if there is an awkward hole, or they can find someway to collapse under a wardrobe they will do so).

This poor woman was covered in body fluids and was properly dead; there was no way we were going to save her.  One of our protocols says that we can recognise someone as beyond hope and not even commence a resuscitation attempt.  Unfortunately we couldn't do it this time as the relatives had been doing CPR (which is the right thing to do) and so we had to make an attempt.

Some crews would do a "Slow Blue" in such a case, but I'm not a big fan of such things, so Noddy and I got to work and tried to resus the patient for 30 minutes.  Our protocol goes on to say that if after attempting a resus for a specified time we can end it and recognise death; which is what we did.

However, in this time it seemed that the entire extended family had arrived and there were over 20 people in this little terrace house with much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  It's always hard to tell someone that their mother had died, but it has to be done, and if you can manage it well you can answer some of their questions and hopefully provide some healing for them.

The G.P was informed (as they get money for certifying deaths it's one of the things we can't do), as was the police (a formality in sudden deaths).  The family had called a priest and he was there before the police arrived, while the GP was going to "phone the family"; what he expected to be able to do over the phone confused me.  And we tided up and went on to another job.

Until two weeks later, when Noddy gets called to a chest pain.  He turns up and finds himself in the middle of a wake, surrounded by twenty familiar looking people.

Can you guess who the wake was for?

Funny old world.

You might have seen a number of reports on "Health Tourists" in the media recently. Some of the figures banded about are based on a flawed study from Newham. I've seen a couple of these "tourists", the most recent was a woman from India who landed in London, went to her friends in Newham and a day later was calling an ambulance (my ambulance if you haven't guessed) as she was in labour. I did tell her that she wasn't supposed to fly after the 35th week of pregnancy, but she didn't speak English.
I've also dealt with a number of "Granny came off the flight and got chest pain" cases. I remember one such case that her test results showed that she'd had her heart attack a day before flying.
My personal experience is that it isn't actually that common, and I suspect the media like this story as it is in the same league of "news" as reporting on illegal immigrants.

I was watching the news on telly tonight, mainly about the earthquake in Bam. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose my family and home...but the news camera lets me know what I'd look like. My TV screen was filled with Iranians crying and wailing, and that camera kept framing and composing "perfect" shots of a people in unimaginable grief. That camera was everywhere, invading peoples feelings, but I suppose these pictures are important to let us know that, yes, people really are upset.

Ohh...Blogware have redesigned the post entry box.  Very nice.  I'll have to have a poke around and see if they have changed anything else.

Well it's the first day of the new year and I've managed to avoid writing reviews, resolutions or "why I want this year to be better".  I think 2004 will be pretty much the same as 2003, there won't be a revolution, there won't be any big scientific breakthrough and I'll still pick up patients who don't need an ambulance.

I did however see all three "Lord of the Rings" films in a row.  Some critics will tell you the films are about Good vs. Evil, or the growth of man or even the rise of Communism.  I however think that it is about a relationship, a long and sometimes painful relationship.  The relationship between my arse and the cinema chair.  More seriously I was greatly impressed by "Return of the King", and even my mum who thinks fantasy films are "silly" thought it was a good film.

I had the pleasure of not working over New Year so I will be relaxed and happy returning to work in a few days, but I'm sure a few days working out of Poplar will soon shake me back to reality.