Panic Attack

Three of us were at a local St John Ambulance duty, while the event had a purpose it was basically another get-people-together-and-get-them-drunk night. It was a night like many others, we basically sat around and chatted amongst ourselves while everyone else became about as stable as a half demolished tower of Jenga.

Fun for all.

One thing that I didn't like about this venue was the positioning of the rest rooms - they were outside the hall, down a corridor and tucked away into a back corner. Usually this wouldn't bother me, but given the heavy drinking the toilets were something we wanted to check on a regular basis. Luckily there were two females on duty with me, so we've divide up the toilet checks where I'd go check male, they'd go check female - much more convenient than vice-versa.

At one point they went off to check the bathrooms and hadn't been back for some time. Figuring they got a job but not hearing a sitrep on the radio, I stuck around and made sure everyone else was playing nice. Down the corridor comes a howling scream and it's at this point I decided I might pay a little visit to see exactly what was happening.

The two females I was on duty with had discovered a girl in a full-blown panic attack. Trying to get her out of the bathroom to somewhere a little better ventilated, they had tried to take her outside - only to have her hit critical when coming down the corridor. I brought over some O2 and we got her ventilated and were reassuring her when I get a tap on the shoulder from security - they were complaining that we were blocking off the toilets.

This really gets to me, when people can see we're in the middle of something, but insist on bothering us for something quite trivial. This girl just needed a few minutes of privacy, so we had stopped people coming down the corridor to the bathrooms. Now, far be it from me to think that maybe, just maybe, people could hold their bladder another few minutes - but to have security demand we move a patient unnecessarily for the convenience of a few drunks makes me just plain angry.

After a little bit of 'verbal altercation' we had them open up a large room and we moved the poor girl still screaming into the room until she calmed to a full recovery. In the end she was more embarrassed than anything, which is quite common in these situations, but I think the stupidity of security didn't help the situation.

This duty taught me two things;
1) While most event security are fantastic and helpful, you do get those on a power trip. Stand your ground, because sometimes you will be the only one defending the patient - and no matter what else may be happening they come first
2) I hate screamers. Put me with a gasping or unconscious patient and I'll work my magic - but when they're high-pitched screaming into my ear it hits me like I'm stuck inside a ringing church bell

I've decided my post on Monday will be a rant on everything I've learned by knowing how little I've learned... Confused? Wait till Monday ;)