My friend almost died last night.
That’s an terrifying phrase for me to put to paper but that is what happened.
When you have a uniform on nothing phases you, when I have a a uniform I can cope. It’s a completely different scenario when someone you know is in a dangerous situation.
I’d been out, celebrating a sporting win in an extremely drunken fashion. The night had ended, we had piled back to mine and were sitting scoffing pizza in our makeshift den.
Then the door opened. A friend had run from the club to mine. She had run because she was having an anaphylactic attack.
Immediately we all sobered up and my housemates and I tried to calm her down. She gets them regularly, they are unexplained. They haven’t yet found a reason for them.
She managed to choke down some piriton, her face was extremely swollen so we could see this was a trial for her. I sat on one side of her and my housemate Ben sat on the other. My other housemate Matt sat on a chair reasoning with her to call an ambulance because she kept asking us not too. I tried to keep her breathing slow and steady. But it was clear to all of us that she was deteriorating. I tried to discreetly pass my phone to Matt to call the ambulance but she got upset. We made the decision and Matt left the room. She grasped her EpiPen and rammed it into her thigh. Then she lay back. We tried to keep her breathing steady. It was raspy, unsteady and unsettling.
Then she stopped breathing.
Ben reached into her mouth and cleared her tongue out of the way so she could breathe.
I lent over and opened her eyes and we both remained talking to her.
Suddenly she sat up and gasped.
Paramedics arrived. Astoundingly her blood oxygen levels were only 77%.
She was taken into the van and then they shut the doors on us. No-one moved, the van didn’t move. Then one of the paramedics ran inside to grab the defib. Once he was back in the van he shut the doors. Then the waiting began.
It could of been 2 minutes, it could of been 10, but for those indeterminable minutes the back of the van did not open. They did not drive away and we could see a steady rocking movement in the van.
All we could do was wait, our hearts were in our mouths. We huddled together and muttered mantras, willing that door to open. Because if that door opened then she would be safe, she would be steady enough for them to drive to the hospital. But right now they needed two of them, and a defib. Your imagination goes into overdrive, and the reality was unfortunately what we were imagining. Our friend was in a serious condition, not breathing and being shocked back to life.
The relief when that door opened and a paramedic ushered my friend Ben in to join them to hospital was unreal.
I can’t place it into words, but I’m sure you could imagine it.
At no point did anyone panic. Everyone remained calm throughout. At no point did I feel like the situation was out of control and it is for that reason I am so thankful that I live in a healthcare household, my housemates are medics.
She made a full recovery and was almost flattened with hugs when she walked back though the doors of our house a couple of days later.
Student Nurse Alert 