For the second year running, I have had dealings with both on Christmas Eve day. Not for me personally. I managed to get through the festive season unscathed...but I was working through.
However, at times the unexpected happens.
In the case of someone I know, Christmas Eve day was that day - again.
I got the phone call. The said person was not in a good way.
An ambulance had been called. When I got there the person was unresponsive. The said person might have had a stroke or some kind of seizure.
This looked hugely more serious than Christmas Eve day 2018, when he was whisked away to hospital.
Within minutes, the ambulance arrived, and three paramedics were in the house.
It was a carbon copy of the previous year's drama. Friendly, professional and superbly cool in what was a potentially a life and death situation.
Readings were being taken, notes entered, and scenarios discussed.
The said person was still unresponsive but he was getting agitated - because of his confused state, a paramedic said.
The paramedics said he may have to be sedated. They calculated his weight to get the correct dosage; too little would have no effect; too much might kill him.
An injection was filled. I was asked to hold an arm while a paramedic held the other. "He won't feel a thing," one said.
A paramedic pulled a large needle from behind his back and jabbed the person's leg. Not a murmur from him.
He was wrapped up, put on a stretcher and off to hospital he went.
The paramedics relayed information they had collected earlier to a doctor and nurse as he was hooked up to all sorts of machines.
The doctor and nurses were equally fantastic, as they had been the previous year.
We have a great health system and fantastic people who staff it.
And of the patient? He bounced back and was discharged later in the afternoon.
No doubt the great care helped.
