Friday September 22, 2006

Blood Bike September 22nd

I had an emergency call tonight at 7:20pm. A woman in the maternity unit in Bridgwater community hospital was in difficulty. The midwife urgently needed to get a blood sample analysed at the pathology labs at Taunton Musgrove Park Hospital.

I was dressed and on the road in a couple of minutes. As I rode away from my house I put on the blue lights and sirens and pulled onto the main road. The ride to Bridgwater, about 19 miles, involved negotiating some heavy Friday evening traffic. The M5 motorway was especially crowded. On the approach to the hospital in Bridgwater there are 2 sets of traffic lights. On an emergency run with lights and sirens emergency vehicles may go through a red traffic light as long as they treat it like a give way junction. If a crash happened while going through a red light then it is likely that the emergency vehicle's driver would be held to be at fault and be liable to prosecution. As such, traffic lights should always be treated with great caution. Luckily both sets of lights were green.

A quick dash up to the maternity ward to pick up the blood sample, a scribbled signature from a nurse and I was off again. Through two sets of lights, along a busy town road then out onto the busy M5 motorway again. In Taunton I had just 1 out of 10 sets of traffic lights go against me. I arrived at the hospital, had the duty pathologist paged and handed over the blood sample at 8:00pm exactly.

"Coming down" after an emergency run is not easy. The focus needed to get through busy traffic and the rush of adrenalin that you get as a result leaves your heart pounding for minutes afterwards. The ride home seemed incredibly slow. It took me 40 minutes to ride a route that had taken me just 40 minutes on the way down - and that included a diversion off the motorway, into Bridgwater and a stop at the hospital to collect the blood sample.

I don't know what happened to the mother and unborn child and I probably never will, but it feels great to have played a small part in helping them tonight.

Time on the road: 1h30m, Mileage: 63, NHS money saved: £23 (US$43)

Posted by mikebelch ( Sep 22 2006, 10:36:35 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]