Please leave a comment.


I love receiving and reading comments ~ please leave one.
If you are a regular I am pleased to see you again ~ make yourself at home. If you are new to my blog, welcome too, and please introduce yourself and I will reply very soon.

Sunday 1 June 2014

WE ALWAYS TRIED TO GO THE EXTRA MILE

I cannot reveal, or show, this lady patient in the wheelchair, but let's call her Doris. She was loved by all the ambulance crews.



 Sadly Doris is no longer with us. She was one of my favourite patients, amongst many, and I collected her from a nursing home three times a week to take to a nearby hospital for kidney dialysis.  Doris was wheelchair bound but could be transferred to a seat with some assistance.  

She was one of 6 patients I transferred three times a week and it became quite a social occasion for them, although obviously all of them would prefer to have normally functioning kidneys. 

After four hours on dialysis machines I took them all back home again, spending those four hours amusing myself at the seaside, sometimes enjoying the beautiful countryside and walking around my favourite lake. It was a great job! Wasn't I lucky to do this for two years before I went onto other duries.

I always took Doris home first, since she lived nearest to the hospital and at the nursing home they became quite fond of me; always offering me some cake and a cup of tea and staying for a chat and a joke.  

Must be the lad's charm, working!

Doris was a very likeable lady, always smiling and making the best if things - she was born and lived at the seaside town an longed to see more of the sea front, since there was no-one available to take her.  I made sure that was put right so I arrived 10 minutes early next day and treated her to a slow journey right across the entire sea front and back again,  She could see it perfectly from the ambulance and as an extra treat I drove onto the sands on a nearby beach so she could see  a grand view of the pier. Then we drove to the dialysis unit. 

She was so thrilled - it was almost as if I had given her £100.

I made sure I did this for her every time.

During that year at the sea front was constructed a big wheel which she admired and said she'd love to ride on it  I surprised her one day - I journeyed in my own car one Saturday and arrived at the nursing home and said I had a special treat for her - and took her for a ride on the big wheel.  She was so thrilled.

I made sure with the control desk that if anyone else stood in for me for those three days they would always remember to take Doris for her trip along the sea front.


It was always sad when a renal patient died - we went into a kind on mourning for a while.  Non of these patients survived very long because the dialysis machines are far inferior to our wonderful kidneys and they had only 12 hours a week to filter out all the impurities, whereas we have 168 hours week in week out. 


___________________________

More ambulance stories to follow

45 comments:

  1. No wonder I love you, Ed. You have such a big heart!
    What a sweet story. You'll have jewels in your crown some day for how well you treated her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing special about what I did - I think we would all have done something like it. But I do have a lot of friends like that now in Heaven whom I want to see again. Another lady was called Ruby and I gave her a Christmas Card saying, "To Ruby, the finest little gem in the whole Jewell Box!" She cried and said she would always keep it! :)

      Delete
    2. No, I disagree! Most would not have gone the extra mile. Oh sure, they would have been kind and done their job, but wouldn't have gone out of their way to do the other things you did!

      Love that about Ruby...but see...most would not have done that. You have a gift! These are great RAK's aren't they? :)

      Delete
    3. Well maybe but I don't think of it at the time as RAKs, I just do thngs like that sometimes . . . but not always!

      I have a load of ambulance stories like that which I am going to post - I could not do so until recently :)

      Delete
    4. Sometimes but not always....that's what makes them random, silly! :)

      Delete
    5. ROFL - love it! You are insisting! . . . . . so OK I give in gracefully!
      They used to call me Sir Ed at school so maybe I am due for a knighthood LOL :)

      Delete
  2. Sorry you lost this lovely lady but Im sure you help her and make happy.
    That is the difference when a person make his work wit love.
    You made she happy.
    And this was nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Gloria.
      You have a great big heart too - but I always knew that. xo

      Delete
    2. Thanks Eddie this was a really touched post:)

      Delete
    3. Thanks Gloria - I have many stories like that which I will post. I am now able to do so.
      I am so pleased you liked the story:

      You might like this one! It is very sad:

      http://eddybluelights.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/fond-memories-of-dear-patient.html

      It means a lot that you like them so much. :)

      Delete
    4. Thanks Eddie Iwill see soon!

      Delete
    5. OK Gloria - that would be nice :)

      Delete
  3. Hi Eddie .. as you say that extra mile and I bet it made her life much happier and she always had something to look forward to ... lovely story .. cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Hilary . . . . matbe I might meet her again and the others in much happier circumstances. I have a lot of stories like that. Cheers ~ Eddie

      Delete
  4. its cool you took her out by the dunes...you made her day i bet....and its cool the connections we make as well...i am sorry she is no longer of this world....but glad your lives intersected for that time....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Brian - isn't it starange how we make connections like that all through our lives . . . . and livesd do intersect sometimes in delightful ways

      Delete
  5. She had to enjoy that every day indeed that it took seed. Just taking in such sights in a vehicle with flashy lights

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah she was an adorable and lovely dear
      And felt must better when I showed her the pier
      And took her along the seafront shore
      And let her see the the sights galore.

      Delete
    2. A post that isn't a post
      Here at your coast
      Hit publish by mistake
      Geez, thanks for the fake lol

      Delete
    3. Me, too!
      I got screwed!
      Came to be first
      and found out the worst. haha.

      Delete
    4. Hey you two and I say HI
      Now you can have another try
      The post is published have no fear
      So you can read it nice and clear!
      LOL

      Delete
    5. Have us running in circles you do!
      Oh, the things we will do for you!
      And in rhyme, as well!
      what the hell?
      Or hell's teeth as your dad would say,
      which still makes me chuckle until this day!
      haha.

      Delete
    6. Yes my dad did say some words that riot
      Another one was 'blithering idiot'
      When someone did something wrong
      And he wanted to swear strong!

      Delete
  6. I suspect that you are the bright spot for very many.. including your readers. I'm sorry you lost that sweet lady from your life but I makes me smile to know that you brought joy to her days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Hilary
      You say such nice things.
      I have a lot of departed friends like Doris - and I have a lot of ambulance type stories to tell.

      Delete
  7. These kindnesses feed our own souls as well. I am sure you felt blessed in helping others in this way. Their lives can become so limited in terms of constant hospital treatments - so nice when they can partake in things that so many of us take for granted. I know they were grateful for your kindness. I can't bear not to be by the water so I know how Doris must have felt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Suzie and yes, it did give me a good feeling helping them to get a bit of happiness into their life! . . . . especially her and a couple of others. :)

      Delete
  8. Doris is definitely smiling down on you, Eddie.
    You are a kind man. A really kind man.
    jj

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Joanna - lovely to have you here.
      Oh! I,m not sure about that, Joanna, we all did things like that in the Ambulance Service

      Delete

  9. "Must be the lad's charm, working!"

    Thinking so, Eddie. Such a fine post. Such kindness. Needed that right now.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So nice of you to remember Doris so fondly.....
    I am sure you were the highlight in her day....
    Great job Eddie....I am proud of you....
    Enjoy your week ahead...
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Linda - I am a big softy aren't I?

      Delete
    2. Yes indeed Eddie.....

      Delete
    3. I'm emailing the address of another touching ambulance story story :)

      Delete
  11. That was a wonderful story! What a blessing you must have received while entrusted with such an opportunity, and what an incredible blessing you surely were to those dialysis patients and those who knew and loved them.
    :0)
    PS. Thanks for Lookin' (me) Up.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In your line of work, you must see miracles and tragedies on a daily basis. It takes a special person to commit, and obviously love, doing what you're doing. I salute you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why thank you very much. I did enjoy the work but I was not at the front end of accident and emergency so I did not see the real grisly things. But there were moments and I did see some near miracles and certainly heard about them. I just loved the patients, particularly the regular ones whi became good friends.

      Delete
  13. I look at you in a different light now Eddie, you are a very kind and sensitive person, very much like me *cough*. You are the sort of person I would choose as a best friend, but we live a long way apart so I'll have to settle for cyber-friend.

    That was a very touching post. Believe it or night but it's very similar to my story. I had a friend I had know since chidhood, but he served i25 years in the Marines and I was in the Guards for 6 years so we eventually lost touch. Years later I learned that he had contracted bone cancer and was wheelchair bound. Like your lady his kidneys had failed and he had to go for dialysis three times a week, by ambulance of course. I wasn't allowed to take him, but on the days he didn't go I used to take him out for pub grub, shopping, and he loved me to take him touring around the beautiful countryside in Leicestershire that we knew so well as children. He died 3 years ago after a massive stroke. I still miss him now, because we were more like brothers than best friends. He meant a lot to me, and I to him I hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, I should reply as Pontillius, otherwise you wont know who I am.

      Delete
    2. I thought it was you somehow! ROFL

      Delete
  14. Thank you for telling me about your friend, Keith. Great the way you looked after him - those renal patients sure all needed a lot of TLC.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You were very kind to the old lady and I always think the saying...... what goes around, comes around, is very true. Maybe someone will do you a great kindness too, when you are most in need of it.
    Maggie x

    Nuts in May

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Maggie! - but it was a pleasure to do this small thing for her.

      Delete

Thank you for your comment. You are most welcome to my humble abode.