Below is a live accounting of a Friday in the life of Ben, one of our responders. This shows the flexibility that can be enjoyed as a first responder and saving lives while also managing to go about a relatively normal life! Of course, not everyone has the flexibility in their lives to be able to volunteer while working, so we build flexibility into our response model to allow you to volunteer at times to suit you and your schedule.
06:00 – get up, sign on, get showered, walk the dogs, have breakfast.
08:00 – start work (from home), tell control desk that I am working and would prefer only to receive critical calls.
09:45 – First patient! Elderly female with a serious lung condition who is struggling to breathe. Administered medical grade oxygen and a nebulised drug to help ease her breathing. Ambulance crew were very quick to back me up and to take patient to hospital.
10:20 – Back home, TV on, back to work.
11:00 – Work meetings for the next few hours. Sign off and tell control I’ll be back on later – I am a volunteer after all!
12:00 – Sign on again over lunch – no patients!
13:00 – Sign off, work meetings all afternoon.
17:00 – Sign on again! We can come and go as we please! Tell control that I would prefer only to receive critical calls.
18:00 – Have dinner, walk dogs.
18:30 – Tell control that I am now sorted and am happy to take any classification of call.
19:15 – Second patient – someone has stopped breathing! Thankfully, not as initially described and patient is ok. They were left at home and all is well. Clear by 19:45.
20:00 – Third patient – elderly male, fallen in kitchen, treated cut to elbow and leg, given a full workup, helped up off the floor and left in the care of his family.
21:00 – Quick trip to Morrisons – need milk for coffee and cheese for tomorrow lunch.
21:30 – Go to McDonalds to meet 4 other responders and hang out for a bit of a social gathering. We’re all in uniform, all on duty and have a good long chat about recent jobs, how the families are and life in general.
22:30 – Fourth and final patient of the day – Middle aged patient experiencing chest pains. Treated at scene and transported by ambulance to hospital after a short wait for a crew.
23:30 – Send mocking, jokey WhatsApp messages to the others who are still on-call and waiting for a patient.
23:35 – Sign off and go to bed having helped 4 people and volunteered my services for 12.5 hours without really having my life disrupted at all! Sometimes I’ll stay on call overnight and be woken for critical calls, but I’m tired and am still a volunteer, so its bed time!