Medical Emergencies

---

Well the day came when we realised how ill equipped we were for a medical emergency in our family. Mikes mother was really sick tonight with severe stomach pains and vomiting. She ended up passing out on the bathroom floor and being unresponsive and unable to talk. We were unsure as to what was wrong with her and did everything we could to make sure she was okay until an ambulance came. We tried to phone an ambulance from our local clinic, however they just spent ages on the phone trying to understand Mikes accent and take our home phone number so that a doctor could phone us later (which is not the response you want to hear when someone is potentially having a heart-attack!!). Anyway, in the meantime we phoned the ambulance service of our gated community, who arrived in about 5-10 minutes. They arrived and came in and stood there looking at Mikes mom on the floor for a few minutes. We waited too, because we thought they were waiting for somebody else or something, but it turns out that they just drive the ambulance and have no medical training whatsoever, so they were waiting for instructions from us as to what we would like them to do with the unconscious person on the floor. They helped us by putting a wooden stretcher beside the bathroom and leaving it there, while Mike had to lift his mother off the floor by himself and try to get her on the stretcher. They had no straps or anything to hold her in place on this narrow wooden stretcher while they lifted it outside and transferred her to another ambulance stretcher (still all directed by Mike). One of the guys did however give me a phone number of a doctor who lives in our gated community and so I phoned him and he very kindly went with them in the ambulance to the hospital. It was great to have him in the ambulance, however it might not have done much good, if there had been something seriously wrong, because there was no equipment in the ambulance besides an old oxygen mask which didn't work.

It took them quite some time to get through the traffic to the hospital because there was a festival on, but eventually when they got to the hospital all turned out okay. The hospital facilities were great and the doctors were very quick and able to help. A big THANK YOU to the doctor who so kindly took care of her as much as he could in the ambulance. She was seen immediately and put on a drip and bloods taken within minutes of arriving. The service was much better than it would have been in Ireland or the UK where she might have been waiting for quite some time before being seen. She found the staff very friendly, competent and personable. It seems she must have had a severe stomach bug or something and will be okay once she stays on a drip with fluids and antibiotics for a while. Phew!!! such a scary experience. Bad enough that this happened but the shock of the ambulance people not having any medical training whatsoever was the most frightening thing, if we had known that we could have just drove her to the hospital and not waited for an ambulance (or bus with a flashing light as it turned out to be)...... Hope we can sort out a more professional ambulance service which would match the other fantastic medical facilities for the rest of our stay here in India...........

---

Comments

[Sandor]

Oew opportunities
Jackie, It is time for you to start studying nursing or something! I am sure Mike would enjoy a sponge-bath now and then... L.S.

[JackieO]

Cheeky!!
i have enough medical skills to keep me going for now, thank you very much !!! :-)