I also look after fools and drunks

I was with St John (as I'm known to be) at a local event where the crowd was happily served copious amounts of alcohol. While I usually dislike these events for the obvious work it provides me with, the crowd were actually a pretty good group of people all out for a nice fun time.

Of course, for two of them, the day after may have been slightly less so. Actually, for more than two - but let's just say these two in particular ;)

The first was a girl who had consumed her fair share of beer and then a little more. After that she drank herself silly. Thinking this might be a good time to head outside and purge her sins, she told her boyfriend her intent and strode forth into the night. After some time the boyfriend (who had stayed inside the warm room filled with friends) got a little worried, and before long we were called to an unconscious female in the garden.

On a side note folks, why always the garden? It's full of prickles, thorns and bugs - please, please try to pass out somewhere a little more convenient for me to get you from!

While she wasn't at the point of needing her stomach pumped, she certainly needed to sleep this off. Her boyfriend and a few friends were with us, which made my life a lot cleaner - I got them to hold the em-bag while she continued her projectile ways. The unfortunate thing for me was the fact that her location was completely inaccessible by vehicles (such as the one a friend was driving around to take her home), she was a large girl and was in no state for walking.

Out comes my best friend, the scoop stretcher. If there is one piece of equipment I recommend all first aiders get - it's this. We load her into it, secure her and (with the help of myself, a partner, the boyfriend and three other friends) take her over to the car. There was a bit of a wait, so we released her from the scoop and we sat around talking for a bit. Although drunk, she was a lovely girl and liked my sense of humor - this was also a good thing because I love an audience. A captive audience best of all.

After a few stories, jokes and musings she said something to me that I doubt I'll ever forget - "You're good at this." For some reason that simple statement made by a drunken girl sitting on cold concrete with a half full em-bag in her lap remains one of my warmest, fuzziest memories of first aid. I felt like, in my own small way, I had achieved something that night. After a bit the friend appeared and we got her into the car for her adventure to continue while we headed back to our designated spot.

A year later at the same venue and event (it runs every year) I met our second drunk. We were called to her under similar circumstances as our last friend, out in the garden 'unconscious' (of all the calls for 'unconscious' I've had, only around 5% of them actually are unconscious...).

Seriously - stop going to the garden, people.

Unfortunately this was the one time of the night when all the people requiring first aid needed us at the same time, so I was caught between treating her and also inspecting a young man who'd recently been in a fight. Luckily they were scant meters from each other, so my life was made somewhat easier. The girl was GCS 3,5,6 - but the 5 was borderline 4 depending on which time you roused her. Drunk girl this post, fighter in a later dedicated post (oh yes, it was a good one).

We got her into a stretcher (I had learned from last year), covered her in a nice thermal (foil) blanket/wool blanket combo and were wheeling her over to the car park so she could get a taxi to her friends place. She probably could have walked, but she was a very petite girl, continuous going 'floppy' and thus was extremely difficult not to drop - I was erring on the side of caution. I was also using this as a way of getting away from the 'fight scene', but again more on that later.

The girl was great when she was talking, a very giggly drunk and rather entertaining actually. While I couldn't stand it all night, a 5 minute stroll was quite enjoyable. The big laugh came when we approached the taxi area with the girl in a stretcher and, unsurprisingly the taxi just took off. We sat her up with her friends to wait for the next taxi with her thermal blanket still around her ("You look like you're about to be thrown in the oven!") and left them to the night. I was proud of the partner I was with, as it was her very first duty and she had handled herself well (which I of course told her), and she said she was impressed with all of our friendliness and humor and was keen to do more duties.

I heard through a friend of a friend that the girl made it back safely to wake the next morning still wearing the thermal blanket - but didn't remember how she got it. It's always nice to hear how our patients have recovered - better still when it can give you a chuckle.