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London Emergency Calling

Although Tom Reynolds of London’s “Random Acts of Reality” is anything but an underappreciated blogger, it’s time he was known as much in the States as he is in the U.K.

This might happen now:

The Friday Project is delighted to announce that it has secured the rights to ‘Random Acts of Reality’, a book based on the acclaimed online diary of London-based Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.), Tom Reynolds.

Tom began working as a nurse for the NHS at the age of 23. He worked in four hospitals but moved to the London Ambulance Service after realising that working in A&E was making him ‘want to torture patients’. Now, as an E.M.T., he has finally found his true calling - so much so that he has stopped torturing ‘all but the congenitally obnoxious… and drunks.’

Since 2003, Tom has kept an online diary (or ‘weblog’, or even ‘blog’), candidly recording every aspect of his daily working life. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heartwarming to the terrifying, the stories Tom tells give a fascinating - and at times alarming - picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.

In today’s compelling blog post, Tom Reynolds writes about the poor staffing of ambulances in London, and his experience helping a young man with an asthma attack. And how they have to wait for an ambulance. And wait some more.

So the patient got a cab to hospital. At his insistence. The double dose of medicine had cleared his lungs up nicely, but he would probably need some short-term steroid treatment. I rechecked my assessment of him, and was happy that his physical condition was well enough to get a cab to hospital. But I wasn’t happy that there was no ambulance for this patient who actually warranted an ambulance.

As I write this I wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t responded to the medicine that I gave him.

You can read more on his site. This blogger definitely deserves this book deal.

We wish a Happy Holidays to our friends in the U.K. Be careful on New Year’s Eve with your partying — especially now that you know the ambulance situation in town.

This entry was posted by Courtney Gidts on Monday, December 26th, 2005 at 7:22 am and is filed under Underrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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