Embarassing Moments...

Early one fine morning, while I was working in the states, I arrived onto the station just as another crew was getting toned out for an emergency call involving a child who had taken a fall earlier in the morning and who now 3 hours later was apparantly using their arm inapproprately (We never did find out what was ment by this!). As they were due off shift in an hour and I wasnt actually due to start for another few hours I went along with them to give them another pair of hands just in case they were needed. Little did I know I was going to be providing the entertainment!

Due to the distances involved in responding to the location the local fire department arrived first and assessed the child before placing them onto a spinal board and having them ready to be transferred onto our stretcher and from there to hospital in our ambulance. As the backup technician on the crew I busied myself taking the vital signs and assessing the patient while the leading technician took the handover from the firefighters.

We loaded the stretcher into the ambulance and I continued to assess the patient in conjunction with the technician asking the mother for any medical history etc while i fed the information I was gathering back to her. The patient who had long hair (remember this bit it becomes important later....) would not respond to any of our questions which made it akward to try to figure out what was wrong with them. Despite this I continued my assessment and as a part of that I continuously explained to them what i was doing and that they were being a very good and brave girl for me.

About five minutes from the hospital i got a chance to ask my partner the childs name, she turned the paperwork so I could read it and in big block letters all I could make out was “Nathan”. I stopped short with what I was doing, picked up my pen and wrote on my gloves, “Is this a boy or a girl”. My partner put on her biggest grin possible and simply mouthed “BOY”. Cue much internal cursing and a rapid change from “Good Girl” to “Good Boy” and many strange looks from the mother!.

Needless to say I wasnt allowed to live that one down for a few days!