Never a moment to rest and always on standby: this is the life of paramedics, as Mphathi Nxumalo found out.
Durban - Never a moment to rest and always on standby: this is the life of paramedics, as I found out on Monday.
It’s 8am and Rescue Care’s operations manager, Garrith Jamieson, is doing paperwork.
Jamieson runs the rescue ambulance company with his wife of four years, Jodi-Anne Jamieson, with whom he has a one-year-old daughter, Emma.
He worked with Netcare 911 for 10 years before starting his own business, and says that helping people runs deep in his veins.
“From a young age, I was interested in First-Aid. I enjoy helping the injured. There is no better feeling than saving someone’s life. You can’t beat that,” he said.
But this comes at a cost, and although he works 12-hour shifts, he is still on call after he has gone home.
“It is literally a 24-hour day job,” he said and to achieve this, he has a staff complement of 15.
Barely two minutes into my interview with him he receives a call. An elderly woman has collapsed at the beachfront and the interview is over for now and we rush to the scene in Jamieson’s Golf 7, zooming through morning traffic to get to the scene.
On arrival, the patient has already recovered and says she is “fine”.
Her husband differs and they get into an argument about it – but the wife wins and we leave.
Jamieson, 33, chats to a lifeguard who called him to the scene and we walk away and he buys coffee.
Barely two sips in, coffees are downed and another call comes in: a car has rolled in Queensburgh and there is a patient who needs help.
“Sorry, but you’re going to have to drink that coffee quickly: good thing it is not too hot,” he says.
He jumps into the car and we leave the beachfront, racing across town to Queensburgh this time.
On hearing the siren, cars and the odd minibus taxi move out of the way as the car goes in excess of 180 km/h.
Jamieson explains that to be able to drive at this speed he has gone through an advanced driving course.
On arrival at the scene, we discover that a Ford Fiesta is damaged beyond repair. It had smashed against a wall.
There are spatters of blood on the road and the woman driver – the only occupant – is still trapped in the car.
A Rescue Care ambulance is already at the scene. An ambulance that carries patients is called a transporter, and Rescue Care have five positioned around Durban to ensure a fast response.
Fire emergency services and the police are also there, as well as curious onlookers.
Some of the paramedics from Rescue Care are assisting the driver as well as paramedics from other services.
Jamieson, who founded the ambulance service two years ago, starts helping the patient as fire emergency services prepare the jaws of life to extricate her from the wreckage.
Other paramedics join in as they help and try to stabilise her as she passes in and out of consciousness.
Firefighters are able to open the doors and she is removed from the vehicle and deftly placed on a stretcher.
She is stabilised and taken to Chatsmed Hospital with a broken collarbone.
A colleague of Jamieson’s in Rescue Care, Zenobia de Jong, said considering the state the car was in, her injuries were not severe.
Often, a car would have little damage and the driver could be in a critical condition, De Jong explained.
The patient is dropped off at the hospital and De Jong, 25, explains that procedure requires that they have to ensure the patient is left in the care of someone who has the same level of qualification as them – or higher.
Being a paramedic is a job that one has to do out of love, she says.
“It can’t just be a job. At the end of the day, it is people you are working with… I do it because I want to make a difference in someone’s life,” De Jong said.
But being a paramedic can be emotionally draining too.
“Our job is very graphic, images get embedded into our heads. You do get hard days and good days… Everyone has ways that they deal with the trauma,” she said.
“Some of us debrief, others see therapists. You do what works best for you…”
As we head back to the office, Jamieson says that to be able to get to emergency scenes on time, it is important to respond on time, and this could only be achieved through networking with police officers, lifeguards and tow truck drivers from around Durban who tip them off to accidents or injury.
Daily News