I know this is late but just read this... When I was on Warfarin and had a nosebleed we were instructed to phone 999 if it didn't stop in an hour. When we phoned the emergency people, when told we were moored at Sonning on the Thames, wanted to send the helicopter. The wife had to talk them out of it as I don't fly. They then sent a paramedic, who came to the lock where he met the wife and then walked to the boat - a distance of 200yds which he maintained was at least mile. He then insisted though the bleeding was very little now, that I go to hospital and was amazed when we said we would walk to his car as he was still planning ambulances and helicopters. We walked to the car and he drove us down to the hospital where they were determined to keep me in and treat me as an invalid. (My bed was wheeled to X-ray and when sent to a ward some poor little s** had to wheel me. Half way there he was panting so much that I seriously offered him the chair. Only when we got to the ward did things get sane though they would not let me go without the very sexy heart doctor's say so next day. (In fact the bleed had restarted in the night and an Ear,Nose,Throat doctor stopped it by stuffing two horrible great condoms up my sinuses - the worse bit of all. (As no-one was allowed to pull them out I did in the end and found the nosebleed had stopped from sheer fear of a repeat!.) It was a relief to get back on the boat but the contrast between the givernment help line (bored 'do this and if it doesn't work don't phone us - phone 999' and the hospital desires to make sure all was OK with knobs on was amazing. What fascinated us was if they had sent a heli where would it land given all land near the river is wooded so it would have had to land a good distance away. - On Wed, 9/17/08, Malcolm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Malcolm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [canals-list] Man in hospital after barge blast (from BBC website) To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 5:03 PM On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:10:40 +0100, "Dorothy Robbie" <dorothy.robbie@ ineedbroadband. co.uk> wrote: > >I expect that would depend on a) how badly injured the casualty was and b) >whether there was a suitable landing area nearby. Other limitations might be >funding - many, if not all, air ambulances are funded by voluntary >contributions, so some areas may not have this service; time of day - I >understand they do not fly during the hours of darkness because of the >variable landing surfaces they might have to use; and maybe lots of other >things. > Have you watched Helicopter Hero's on live at 09:15 or on iplayer http://www.bbc. co.uk/programmes /b00dlp13 They do in fact go to some relatively minor injuries - like broken ankles - and they land in some fairly difficult country - much more so than the average land surrounding many of our canals. I'm not certain if they are limited to day light hours. But even if they can't - the RAF/RN/ HMCG Search and Rescue aircraft are cleared to fly at night - and furthermore don't have to land as they have winches. -- Malcolm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
