Christmas day on the beat: Joburg Gen 163 Trauma unit

When I work this team works period!!When I am busy they are busy.

As an Advanced Life Support Paramedic I treat critical patients so you can understand that when I burst through the doors of 163 Trauma unit the nurses and doctors run towards me knowing that I have a critical patient and lots of work must be done. Many times I come in with 2 or three critical patients at once wheeling them in like a train!
Friday and Saturday nights month end in the inner city are Satan's playground. alcohol and drugs play their part. Trauma and mayhem is king. Jumping and falls, murders, one shooting after the next (my record was seven shootings in a row) I have had multiple victims on one shooting scene, anything from 5 to 8 patients. Multiple to single patients who have been stabbed on on scene. Many many children who have fallen from buildings to being knocked over by cars. this list is endless. The team joke with the new doctors that I go out and find these critical patients and bring them to them! But it is a war-zone in Hillbrow and the inner city slums of Johannesburg and when on duty I am the only Advanced life support paramedic for around 5 million people in the inner city and this team are my life-line.

I phone ahead to let them know I am coming in with details of the patient's conditions and will let them know if the patient is stable or unstable because there is always a bit of a panic when they see my face as they know it will be a critical patient and time and skill is Paramount. For fun I pop in when it's quiet or I have dropped off a patient somewhere else in the hospital and I love to watch their faces turn to relief when its just a visit. I have worked and brought patients here since 1999 and have watched with them as the young doctors have progressed through some making brilliant doctors and surgeons and other not so much! January is always stressful when the new interns arrive all wide eyed and to be honest not having a clue as to what to do next. without these nurses the doctors would falter and so this is a small tribute to these amazing people who save lives and make my job a little easier. oh yes we fight, argue and laugh all in the heat of the moment and many times I can ring their necks as much as they would mine. but over the years we have become a family and well oiled machine. Salute.