A geeky post for once. For those of you who use a flavour of Unix and need to do so remotely, you’ve probably come across screen (if you haven’t, go read).

I use screen lots - for example, my IM client is a command-line curses-based client (centerim) running in a screen. This means that when I go home, I can log into it by attaching to the screen instance from there, but it allows me to keep it running in the office. It’s ideal for doing major work when you’re on the road, as 3G is still flaky in most parts of the country and screen allows you to just reattach and get on with it.

It’s got quite a few options for using - well worth reading the man page to find out some of the more unusual ones, but one of the places I’ve used it a lot is for training - showing people remotely how to do something. You get them to log in and run a command that connects to your screen and you can then demonstrate while they watch. Thing is, I’m forever forgetting the multiuser options of screen, so when I found this page today (thanks Google), I figured I’d better remember it.

Have fun!

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Last September I blogged about a search that we had in Tycroes in West Wales. According to the BBC the case just reached court.

Some of the things in that article are quite rough to have to read. The violence with which he beat her seems unbelievable given that while we were searching it rapidly became apparent that she was a warm and friendly woman who was generally a happy and bouncy person. While that sounds a little stereotypical of what someone says after this kind of event, I’m sincere in this case - when you search for a missing person you have to find out a lot about them, facets of their life that may not be apparent to their nearest and dearest. The police will collect information from a variety of sources to build up a complete picture about a person so that we can more accurately predict where they are.

In this case however what stuck in my mind was just how friendly and warm people said she was. A very sad outcome, but gratifying to see that the police managed to get enough evidence to arrest him.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Hayfever is hitting me pretty hard this year - I’ve had a number of people comment that they’re finding it difficult to cope as well, so it looks like there’s seriously potent pollen out there for some reason. As a result, I’ve not been spending much time outdoors, but I decided to partake in this month’s exercise - the grass pollen season is nearing its end, so I should be calming down a bit in theory. Thursday night however brought some interesting news - this month’s exercise was to be a search in the Gower, for the chap we were looking for two weeks ago.

So, with the Met Office promising gales of up to 50mph, we headed off in the glorious sunshine on Sunday morning, with the remnants of last night’s torrential rain still making it’s presence felt on the heads of the valleys road. Down on the Gower, the wind was gusting uncomfortably high, so the pneumatic aerial mast was only raised a little and control was set up. Tasked with leading a party in an area of fields the police needed covered, we headed off and spent the next few hours making our way through fields of …well knee-high (or occasionally higher) meadow grass - that is, grass with a random spattering of wild flowers and grasses in it. In other words, hayfever hell.

Nevertheless, onwards we plodded working our way through the fields and hedgerows. In searches like this, where there’s a real possibility that the person you’re looking for is dead, you have to look under hedges and in undergrowth in case they’ve crawled in there to seek shelter and died. It’s not a particularly joyful kind of searching and, heartless though it may seem to onlookers, we joke and laugh amongst ourselves, sometimes with exceedingly black humour to try and keep our spirits high.

By 1400 I was slowly collapsing in a sneezing lump of streaming mucous and with everyone’s stomachs grumbling we headed back to the pub for a lunch of sausage and chips. It’s amazing just how good simple food tastes after hard work. With the masses fed and watered, the afternoon’s plans were outlined and with a few changes of plan as more information about the morning’s searches was acted upon, I ended up staying around the control vehicle - good for my hayfever at least!

By 1700 it was decided that we’d done enough and the long job of packing up and making the vehicles ready for the next job, whenever that may be, was started. No sooner had I taken the cap off the generator to check the fuel levels than the pagers went off - area call in the Swansea area. What luck - we were already in the Swansea area. So, hurriedly repacking everything, mobiles, radios and police radios blaring all around us as more information rapidly came in, we jumped into Alpha and headed off - our destination was north of Swansea, in Glais.

The journey through Swansea was rapid - combination of sirens and two-tone air horn works well to clear traffic on what had been a very busy day in Swansea with the Race for Life on. It didn’t take us long to clear the traffic and as we arrived on scene the full details were apparent. Two men had fallen 25m down a cliff face - ambulance and fire brigade on scene, 169 en route in.

A complete contrast to the gentle start to that morning’s activities, helmets and harnesses were thrown on and within minutes the area was empty of personnel as people headed up to the casualty site. I stayed behind to man the radios and start the paperwork. It soon became apparent however that they desperately needed more personnel up on scene. Leaving the incident in the hands of a senior member who couldn’t go onto the hill, I headed off.

169 had already winched the first casualty out as I arrived on scene to help with the second casualty. Helimed was providing some medical assistance along with the paramedic winchman from 169; the fire brigade was helping us with the technical equipment and they’d already cleared a few trees to allow 169 to winch clearly. It didn’t take long for the chap to be packaged properly and his stretcher was soon being passed the 20m up to the winching point hand-over-hand, his IV bag following him. The usual clatter of rotors overhead soon drowned out any conversation and within minutes, the casualty and winchman were on board and rapidly making their way to Morriston hospital which was only a few minutes away, leaving us to clear up and get everyone out safely. Reversing down the track was interesting, and we passed Pete our team leader giving a TV interview at the bottom of the hill on our way out.

It was a good job for what was a long and fruitless search - always nice to end the day on a high note.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve got a route which I run. Not every morning - and especially not at the moment. Right now, if I ran that route in the mornings, by 9am I’d be collapsed in a heap of sneezing, runny-eyed, hayfevered mess. Pollen count si very high - kinda gets in the way of life really.

Anyway, I have been doing some figures. My morning run is just short of 4km (2.5miles-ish). I can normally finish that run at the moment in about 55mins. That’s a long time I hear you runners say (do I actually know any runners?). In fact, it is a long time…given the assumption that you’re running a flat 4km circuit. I, on the other hand, live in Wales. Flat is what happens when the valleys flood, and even then you can’t really run on it. Flat is what happens when you get to the tops of the hills. Flat is the one thing my route doesn’t have in it.

With a bit of map-reading, it looks like I’m climbing about 150m from the start point to the midway point before turning around and going back down again (via a slightly different route). Just over 130m of that is over a 500m stretch of the first km - yup, that’s one hell of a climb. So, some rough calculations using the amended version of Naismith’s rule, gives me an estimated total trip time of about 1hr 15min at 4km/hr. So, given some figures about the fitness level I want to reach, I need to be running this circuit in….umm…carry the one….31 minutes. Right. What?!

31 minutes. Owch. Best I’ve managed so far was about 47 mins and that was a while ago.

So, some work to do then…look out for a fitter, healthier, slimmer Aled near you soon…

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

…that Sean has just spent the last 10 minutes trying to justify why he thinks that Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery and Anthony Stewart Head are sexy?

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

First responders seems to be quietening down at the moment and Mountain Rescue’s getting busier!

We’re up to our forty-something-th callout already this year - we’re well on track to be amongst the busiest teams in the country and this weekend’s contributing heavily to that number. Last night, just after midnight, while Sean and I were just winding up a long-needed clearout of the enormous piles of crap I have in my office the pager went off. With my hayfever going mad this year it’s triggering asthma which isn’t a good thing - especially when I’m going to be heading out with the team!

On the way to base we heard the details - we had a search for a misper down on the Gower - an elderly gentleman with dementia. He’d gone wandering and though we spent quite some time searching, we couldn’t find a trace. With the sun rising, the police stood down for a few hours for a shift handover and we headed back to base with the pagers announcing that the search was continuing. I was heading for bed.

This afternoon we’ve had a request from South Wales police to help recover a body. That’s going on at the moment and on top of that the search is continuing in the Gower. Another busy weekend for us. I’ve been catching up on sleep and preparing for tonight - a first responder meeting to go over any clinical issues we’ve had recently.

Anyway, more office to clean…

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

The past few weeks have been mostly unbroken by shrill beeping of the pager with the exception of the regular Thursday night tests. That is, until Saturday. And it’s been a bizarre series of callouts.

After doing my Ambulance shift on Saturday, I headed up to Aberystwyth. Sean and I headed out to a Greek restaurant in town, where I think I surprised the waitress by actually knowing what I was ordering and pronouncing it fairly accurately too. It was a cracking meal and as Sean and I were relaxing in his room later on, the pager went off for the first time in a while. This one was for a search in Penarth for a missing elderly gentleman. Weighing up the options, I decided to not attend - it would be a 100-mile journey to base, 2 hours minimum. Not really worth it - a decision that’s becoming harder to make with rising fuel prices, since I have to pay for my own diesel for going to callouts.

The search continued into the early hours when it was stood down - the team had an ex on Sunday which was supposed to go ahead until the pager went off again at 1000 - a continuation of the previous nights’ callout. Whilst my colleagues were scouring scrubland in South Wales, I was eating ice cream and relaxing on the beach in Mid Wales (sorry guys!). The afternoon peace was broken by another pager message - this time for an area call in the waterfalls which finished fairly quickly. With the afternoon dying away, the search was finally stood down and I enjoyed a peaceful night.

Until last night when, as I was pulling away from Tesco’s, the pager went off. I headed up to base, vaguely concerned about my frozen pizza in the boot. Once there, I found that we had a sighting of a flare in or around the Ystradfellte Reservoir and so we headed up to Storey Arms to meet the Brecon team. With people approaching the valley from all directions, it wasn’t long before we stumbled across some people who had been setting off flares for no good reason and should have known better. I can’t go into detail, but suffice to say, they’re probably not having a good day today.

As I was about to pull out of the layby after packing up, the pager went off again, this time for a possible downed hanglider north of Cardiff. By the time I got to base, we’d been stood down since no actual evidence of the crash had been found. We packed up and headed home where, at 2300, I finally managed to cook my now-deformed and defrosted pizza. I finally collapsed into bed around 0100 and fell deep asleep…

…until about 0145 when the pager woke me - search for a misper in Porth. With feet of lead, I dragged my reluctant self downstairs and headed off to base again. Not much to say about this one, there wasn’t a huge amount of information, it was a horrendously shitty area to search and he was found outside of our search area. By the time I’d packed up the vehicle in base and reached home it was 0600 and I managed a few hours’ sleep before I had to get up for work.

I just hope that this isn’t the trend for the week.

Technorati Tags: callout

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

…at 2am on the walk back from the pub, you and your friend are discussing the relative merits of the influence of the postmodern and minimalist movements on the architecture in the village.

And then running away as the you trigger the security lights of the house you’ve just been discussing.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve been reading with interest and disgust the comments made by MSP Murdo Fraser about the policing of the UEFA cup final in Manchester.

Reported widely on the BBC, I read it today and was surprised to see the MSP at odds with the police already - along with both Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems:

“I thought there was an over-reaction in terms of deploying riot police which possibly enflamed the situation…” MSP Fraser, BBC New

Personally as soon as I read his comment, I though his opinion was unlikely to be true. The police certainly weren’t amused and neither was Machester council leader, Sir Richard Leese, who said:

“If you are going to put blame on anybody you put blame on those people for their behaviour - they have to take responsibility.” Sir Richard Leese, BBC News

The police, who where policing a very difficult situation it seems felt it necessary to issue riot gear to the officers on the ground in order to control the crowds. Given that the MSPs in question weren’t there, I have to wonder how they think they’re talking anything but absolute rubbish. Of course, they’ve ended up with large amounts of egg on their faces now as GMP have released CCTV footage of the crowds, shown here on the BBC website. Quite frankly, looking at that footage, I think if I was that poor officer I’d be shitting myself with a mob of violent, angry and likely drunken hooligans bearing down on me. I can only imagine what that must have been like for him and all respect to him.

Of course, the wrong and allegedly honorable MSP Fraser has now issued a statement, not to camera this time, where according to the Beeb, he’s had to “temper his comments”. Apparently, after viewing the CCTV “the situation was more serious than [he] first suspected” and “The attacks on police officers and paramedics are deplorable and have to be condemned without reservation.”

So apart from thinking that the hooligans involved in the violence and riots should be strung up, I have to admit that my opinion of this MSP is now very low given that he seems to think he can judge a situation better than trained and experienced officers on the ground. Idiot.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve not really had the best of luck with cars over the past few years.

2 years ago, my Discovery failed an MOT with some £2k of work needing doing on the body. With a resale value of £2.5k after doing the work, I opted not to throw my money away. My next car turned out to be a lemon and was scrapped. Following that, I had an old Rover for a while until the head gasket blew recently - a common fault on these cars, mainly because the engine is a bit crap. For the few weeks after that I had some rental cars (new Mondeo saloon - very nice indeed; a brand new Corsa - not bad, but too small for me; ML320 - nice but waay out of my reach) while I desperately looked for a new car. I had a recommendation to go and visit a garage in Risca so off I went.

Stuart, of Trustworthy Motors in Risca didn’t have anything in my price range out front and since it was a Sunday the office was deserted. Nevertheless, you don’t often get a used car salesman with such a glowing recommendation so I grabbed his phone number and left a message. Stuart called me back and we had a chat. He took the details of what I needed, my budget and so on and I was left with a feeling of confidence that he could find me something decent, even though my budget was fairly tight. Then at the end I had the big surprise - since I was a friend-of-a-friend he offered to lend me a car for a few weeks so that he could have a chance to find something and it would at least get me on the road. Once I’d picked myself up off the floor I gratefully accepted and a few days later picked up a Renault Scenic. With that taking a weight off my mind and wallet, life settled back into a routine again.

A week or two later I had a phone call - he’d found me something. An R reg VW Golf Estate, 1.9 diesel (no turbo). Initially unenthusiastic, it was a little over budget but I popped over to see it. Immediately I saw it, I felt better - a 4 door, small family-sized estate, loads of room in the boot. It even had a dog guard and a boot protector. My fears over a lack of turbo were put aside as I drove it and after chatting over the price, we shook hands - with a payment plan that suited me perfectly as well.

Of course, I’ve already told the story of what happened next, not two weeks into the ownership of my new Golf. The good news is that the rumble was just a balancing problem and I’m back on the road with a fully working Golf. It needs a little TLC for the bodywork and a new wheel, but other than that, it’s back to normal. The drive is lovely - it’s such an effortless drive to Aberystwyth, there’s more room in the boot than almost any other car I’ve had and all in all, it’s a cracking little car. My experience with Stuart has boosted my confidence in used car salesmen tremendously and I can’t speak highly enough of him.

Makes a change, doesn’t it?

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Sorry I’ve been quiet recently but the last few weeks have been pretty chaotic. Today, however, deserves a post of its own

First of all my car died. I ended up renting one for a week, followed by borrowing one from a used car dealership that was able to get me out of a very difficult situation, but that’s a different post. Finally, I managed to find a new car - a nice shiny red VW Golf estate which has impressed me a lot. I’m loving it.

So in my nice new car I was heading to base this morning, not to work and for once not to a callout. Meeting at base at 1000 we set about to prepare ourselves and the base for today’s event - a royal visit.

At about 1400 today, a number of cars pulled up outside base and out stepped Prince William. As the news reports, he was visiting a number of places in the valleys and stopped off to see us as his final visit of the day. We had some fun prepared for him - some hobnobbing with the local dignitaries, a light lunch and then change and head up to Morlais Quarry where we took him to the top off the cliff and he got to lower someone down a cliff - I don’t think his protection detail would have been too amused by my idea of lowering him off the edge of a cliff, but nevertheless, we had some great photo opportunities. It was a great day with fantastic weather and we all thoroughly enjoyed.

That’s when it all went downhill though, because on the way home, some drunken twat drove into my nice shiny new car and drove off without stopping. The damage isn’t too bad, it was a glancing blow but it’s knackered one of my wheels (it’s bent the actual metal bit) and twatted my rear door and rear wing, and after a drive tonight, I think it might have done something to the suspension or thereabouts. I only managed to grab a partial index - “S633…”, and I know it was a pale blue or silver hatchback - a large one, quite wide. Beyond that, the prick didn’t even slow down - no brake lights. I’ve just got home after filling in a police report which was gratifyingly easy and quick, though the nice young PC didn’t hold much hope of catching the turd, and reckoned he was probably drunk anyway.

Great.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I posted anything here. So much has happened recently…

I’ve not really been responding with the First Responders recently because of something that happened to me that has caused huge repercussions through my whole life - my car died. Now, I believe in Bangernomics - running cheap cars with higher maintenance costs instead of newer more expensive cars who depreciate quickly. However, I was expecting my little Rover to last another year or two, so it was a little bit of a shock when the head gasket blew and I had to get towed back from halfway to London. I have a temporary fix and I have someone looking for a more permanent fix for me, so I’m not too bad for now but it does mean that I’m not really able to respond for now.

We have had a job with Mountain Rescue - apart from a standdown after a request for assistance for a search in Redditch that is. It was a call to New Tredegar to assist the fire service with two youths stuck on a rock face. They were in a pretty nasty little gully, lots of loose rock, very unstable and we had a bit of a job getting them down. It was nice to be at the sharp end of a fairly technical job for a change, so I was happy with that.

Right now, I’m sat in a fantastic flat in Battersea in London getting Sean and his Dad ready for his Dad’s wedding. It’s going to be fun event I think, I’ve even got a reading to give and I’m taking the groom to the wedding in a rental car. The first of four wedding-type events of this year so far, Sean and I are going to be all weddinged-out by the end of the year I think.

Right, time to wash the car I think.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Ok, so it’s not that impressive, but it was a busy shift today. 4 calls, one mountain rescue callout.

The shift started off quiet with no calls from Ambulance control until Saturday morning, meaning that I could get a decent night’s sleep. Of course, a lie in was out of the question as the phone rang at just before 0900 for a call to an elderly lady with a PR bleed. I headed off to the home - it’s a fairly decent place, but it’s more of a sheltered home than a nursing home offering full medical care. Apparently, the lady had been sent home from hospital the week before with a perforated bowel, though that seemed unlikely. Either way, she was in pain and so after only a few minutes of getting her details the crew arrived and she was rapidly taken out to the ambulance. I headed back for some breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Off into Caerphilly at lunchtime to meet an old friend. We managed a decent meal without interruption and I started thinking that I might even be able to get some DIY done today. Of course, on the way back from Asda I had a call, so seeing as I was 20 yards from the house I dropped Sean off, he grabbed the shopping and off I went. The call was for a 54 year old female who’d fallen and had a back and shoulder injury. I found the house OK and headed in - the husband pointed me upstairs where I found the lady bent double over the bed. She’d slipped while showering in the bath and fell backwards onto the taps. She was fairly comfortable so long as she maintained that position and just as I started getting some basic obs the crew turned up. They listened to her chest and suspecting a pneumothorax caused by a broken rib, we got her out to the ambulance quickly and she was blued into A&E.

On the back from that call, I had another, this one to a 98 year old female who’d fallen. Off I went across Caerphilly to find the lady had fallen coming out of the kitchen and had bruised her knees. I took some basic obs, reassured myself that she was ok - the walking around the house proved that. Control called to get an update while I was there which is unusual - they asked if I could clear and since there was a crew pulling up and I said yes. Things had suddenly kicked off with an RTC, a collapse, chest pains, several Difficulty In Breathing calls and a “?CVA - unresponsive”. So I got the CVA. When I got there, the “unresponsive” part was true - he was sitting up and breathing fine but wasn’t responding to us. The crew was coming down the road as I walked into the house, so I gave the chap some oxygen and let the daughter bring the crew up to speed. I assisted in getting him out to the truck and headed back to the car. There was an RRV on as well and I heard him heading off to another job as I packed the car up.

Hoping to go home to get a cuppa, I was still a mile away when the phone rang again - 41 year old female, ankle injury. Ok, no worries I said, where? The answer - “The burger van, Caerphilly Mountain.” “Excuse me?” I queried how far from the road she was and was told that the caller said that she was near the road. I asked to put Mountain Rescue on standby, just in case. I got there quickly - it’s an easy run from where I was and traffic was light - the rain however, wasn’t. I got to the top and there was no sign of anyone with a broken ankle. Back to control who called the reporter, asking me to keep a look out for a woman with a dog. Spotting her across the car park, I asked her for some details. Apparently the lady was some distance from the road. I headed back to the car - by now the rain was heavy and the sky gray - or was it the other way around? Either way, it was cold and wet and getting wetter. I called control back and asked them to arrange for Mountain Rescue - I’d need some backup on this one especially if she was any serious distance from the road. I slung a decent coat on, grabbed my MR kit and my Ambulance bag and off we went.

She was some 500m from the road on a muddy and slippery path. The ankle in question was swollen and slightly deformed and moving it was causing some pain, so I got my KISU tent out (naturally, it was the first thing I thought about this time) and insulated her from the ground. There were 3 other family members and her son, so I put them under the KISU tent too. Meanwhile, I had Mountain Rescue and Ambulance control to coordinate. The ambulance arrived and held at the RV which was the burger van. Police arrived soon after with 2 WPCs slipping and sliding their way up. Helimed - the air ambulance - was rejected due to the fact that the casualty was in trees and Gwent’s helicopter couldn’t fly in this weather. Rescue 169 was an option and after a discussion between myself and one of our MR Incident controller’s, was stood to and asked to make their way to us. The police were happy to leave things to us - the terrain wasn’t good and although they offered the fire service, we really needed MR. Our stretchers are designed to have people strapped into them instead of balanced on top and on this kind of terrain I wasn’t happy with anything else. I had a few conversations people and I think it did show a little of the fact that people aren’t that aware of our capabilities as mountain rescue.

Pretty soon we had plenty of people there and with a blast of entonox, we packaged the lady’s ankle in a vacuum splint and stretchered her off. The team had assessed the path on the way in and stood down 169. Within half an hour she was in the back of the ambulance on the way to Cardiff. I called Ambulance control and advised them that I was going off-service for a while - I had to follow the vacuum splint to Cardiff to retrieve it and then head home to get changed out of my soaking wet clothes. I had a thanks from control and from the police Sargent whom I’ve now seen on a few incidents in the area. I had a chance to chat with the lady in A&E and found that she had indeed fractured her fibula right on the ankle. I wished her well and picking up the splint headed home for chips and a shower and some dry clothes. Despite going back on service the rest of the night was nice and quiet as was the rest of the weekend - I’ve even managed to (finally) finish painting the bathroom.

How was your weekend?

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Sean and I were quite happily sat at home yesterday when the pager went off for an area call. As Sean called out the grid reference, I tried working out where it was…until Sean called out the location. “Abertridwr.” “I…what?!” I grabbed my pager and laptop and threw the grid reference into StreetMap - sure enough, it was a callout just off the top end of Abertridwr.

Jamming my shoes and jacket on quickly, Sean and I ran out and drove off. Arriving on scene, I texted one of our senior guys who I knew was en route and quickly changed into my boots and a hi-viz. I could see someone standing up by a small quarry uphill from us and Sean and I headed up the scene. A young lad had broken his leg and the ambulance crew were already on scene. We had a few interesting moments but apparently they’d already called 169 to come and assist and apart from covering them in a KISU tent and trying to organise a winching location for the helo, there wasn’t much for us to do. I had the amusing moment of clearing the scene of helmet-less people (mainly police) but other than that it was a fairly rapid and uneventful callout. 7 mins from pager to being on-scene and I think we were stood down within about an hour.

Couple of things come to mind though as I look back and analyse my own actions. I was very aware that although I’d joined First Responders to get some experience of dealing with scenes, this one threw me because I’d concentrated so much on the medical and there was nothing for me to do here - there was a paramedic on scene. I did have concerns about their health at one point since it was damnably cold up there, but 169 shocked us all as it suddenly appeared from over the hill and we were gone before it became an issue.

So, in retrospect, and knowing that hindsight is 20:20, what I could have done better:

• Got a better handover from the ambulance crew. To be fair, the paramedic was being a little brusque and somewhat territorial with his casualty, and while I could have been more assertive, it wouldn’t have benefited the casualty any unless 169 would have taken another hour or so.
• Got my KISU tent out. It was cold up there, but I was mainly trying to get a handle on the scene and get in contact with the rest of the team whilst Mike (who arrived a few minutes after I did) got his KISU tent out.

I think I did OK, certainly room for improvement, something I suspect will come with experience. I certainly think that had we remained there for any length of time I would have chosen a number of actions - got the ambulance crew out before they got hypothermic; got the casualty in a cas bag; moved him onto our stretcher off of the ambulance’s scoop stretcher; certainly I would have offered the casualty some Entonox I think - the Paramedic was sure that the kid was OK with his pain (until he nudged his leg), but I’m not sure how much of that was bravado on the young lad’s part. He refused my offer of Entonox since the casualty was hypothermic - it’s a controversial subject since it’s not technically contraindicated for hypothermic casualties and so long as the cylinder is above -4 celsius it should be ok (you have to shake it first when it’s cold just to make sure it’s mixed). My biggest concern would be monitoring his consciousness levels given that both hypothermia and Entonox can in extreme cases affect it.

Anyway, some food for thought. Good result and the young man seemed to be happy as he got his first helicopter flight, his leg momentarily forgotten as 6.5 tons of noisy, yellow helicopter thundered overhead.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Four years ago I had a bit of a rough time of life. In retrospect, it was for the better, as it allowed me to really and truly reevaluate what I was doing with my life and make several adjustments. In a fit of fluff, I actually even created my own mission statement for myself - something which actually helped and continues to help me focus on what I do in life and where I focus my limited energies. Before I go on, I know that in the technical field I’m in, there’s a resistance against fluffy shit - it’s seen as marketing/sales/management bullshit - which to be fair, a lot of the time it is. However, a mission statement is something I’ve found incredibly worth while - I do a lot of things both in work and out of work. I do, however, have a limited amount of time/energy to share between all of the things I love doing and so this mission statement helps keep me on track - instead of wasting energy all over the place, I focus my energies and time on things that match my core mission. Anyone who’s run a business will appreciate this approach. It’s now come around to that time of year again where I take out the mission statement, look at it, pull it apart and make sure it does reflect what I want from life. Quite surprisingly, although this is the fourth spring that I’ve done this, I’ve yet to change it one bit. So, yeah, there is a section that says “I will stop looking for love, but when it finds me…” - which doesn’t quite fit now that that side of my life is sorted. But the sentiments echoed in that paragraph for me still apply today. It also amuses me throughout how specific some of the wording is in terms of highlighting what’s more important to me. So that’s that for this year. Print it out and sign it now - a hint someone once gave me. You mentally treat things that you sign more seriously. Give it a shot - you might be surprised what an exercise like this brings up.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve been rather apathetic about my blogging recently, sorry about that. I had a pretty busy week last week, including a search for a misper in Mountain Ash on Thursday which left me exhausted for Friday. Friday night was on shift with the first responders right through until Saturday night and what a busy shift that turned out to be - 11 calls in total according to my notes. At least I had a bit of a lie in on Saturday.

Tonight was agaKin out with the ambulance service - something I’m really enjoying though it is frustrating at times. It’s frustrating because the knowledge that I have in terms of diagnosing and treating some conditions through mountain rescue could be applied here - giving Hypostop to diabetic patients having a hypo; giving Entonox to patients suffering from painful trauma; giving aspirin to a patient suffering from a possible heart attack - just three examples where we could make even more of a difference to the community.

Take the last few calls for example. We had a two hour battle with a lovely old guy who was having a very bad hypo - only the second of his life and he’d had diabetes for some 20 years. When we turned up, the wife was able to take a blood glucose measurement for us and between us we managed to get him to take some sugar and some jam. We can’t perform blood glucose measurements ourselves and we don’t carry Hypostop (actually I do for mountain rescue but can’t use it for ambulance service calls). I’ve had a call to an elderly lady who fell - a “nan down”. She’d broken her femur, that much was obvious from the swelling and deformity, but she might also have done some damage to her knee. I had no analgesia - we don’t carry Entonox - and so I could do nothing for her other than monitor her and keep her company. The last 20 minutes of the hour-and-a-bit I spent with here were very worrying - she was starting to deteriorate and I had nothing I could do or give her to treat her. If the crew hadn’t arrived as I was getting my phone out, I would have been on the phone to control to ask for an RRV to back me up - I was concerned at that point about her slipping into hypovolaemic shock. Finally, a few weeks ago, I saw a gent who was complaining of classic heart attack symptoms, and all we could do was watch and wait. I did call for an RRV on that one because I was worried, possibly not necessary, but I’d rather be dragging an ambulance officer out of bed to come and slap on a 12-lead ECG for nothing than having my patient die.

So a frustrating time at the moment. If the ambulance service insist on sending us to these calls where we are currently achieving nothing but stopping the clock, then at least give us that tiny bit more in terms of skills and equipment that could make such a huge difference to someone’s life.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I’m dragged out of my warm, comfortable dream by the phone. I grab it and answer as chirpily as I can, blinking the sleep from my eyes. The lava lamp I leave on when I’m on shift is casting a gentle red glow over everything. It’s a red call - “Nan down“. An old lady’s fallen out of bed at the nearby nursing home. In seconds, I’m on my feet throwing my uniform on. I glance at the clock - 0358. I groan inwardly and grab my mobile, heading downstairs grabbing my fleece and shoes as I go. I’m starting the car and driving off in under a minute.

It’s quiet at the nursing home. We’re led to a room somewhere in the building- the place is a rabbit warren. “She’s very violent.” someone says. Joy. I head in and start talking to her. She looks confused and doesn’t register my questions. I’m just starting to gather the details when the crew arrive. Her right leg is obviously shorter than the left and rotated outwards - classic symptoms of a broken femur.

While we’re helping, the phone rings. It’s control - are we available? We take the details of another call - 6 year old child with breathing difficulties.

I’m more awake for this one and head across town. I get there as the ambulance is pulling up and jump out to assist. When we get inside it’s painfully obvious that this poor boy is having a severe asthma attack. The crew get some Salbutamol going with a nebuliser mask with oxygen. His respiratory rate is at 32 breaths per minute, and his oxygen saturation is down to 83% - both indicators that this kid is very ill. Packing their kit up quickly, the boy is swept up into the arms of a paramedic and taken out to the ambulance. Minutes later, we watch as the ambulance heads off to hospital, blue lights flashing.

I head back to my car and toddle off home, knowing that by the morning, these calls will seem like dreams to me. I just hope I get a decent lie in after this.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve had a livejournal account for some time now and although I post all my articles to my blog, I have a Wordpress plugin that automagically syncronises the two accounts. This is ideal.

I’m also part of a community known as UKNOT. UKNOT has an RSS aggregator that grabs a bunch of blogs and presents them nice and neatly. Only problem is that since my blog’s been on there, the text in the titles has not been parsed correctly - if I have a character in the title that turns into an HTML entity, then it goes all pear-shaped.

Today I tracked down why (which will probably make a bunch of UKNOTters very happy). When my post gets sent to LJ, it has the special characters in the title. Take my last blog entry as an example:

“Therrre’s been a Murrrrrderrrrr”

Fine. Nothing wrong with that. Comes up in the RSS feed as:

 <title>&#8220;Therrre&#8217;s been a Murrrrrderrrrr&#8221;</title>

For those of you who aren’t technical, that’s how those special characters are embedded within the RSS feed. They’re parsed as HTML entities and converted by your browser to something pretty. Obviously this means that if I want to put an ampersand into my document, it has to be encoded as &amp;.

Problem is this - look what LJ’s RSS feed does:

 <title>&amp;#8220;Therrre&amp;#8217;s been a Murrrrrderrrrr&amp;#8221;</title>

Yup, its converted the ampersands into HTML entities. I’ve checked what I can - everything seems fine apart from LJ’s RSS generator. So, LJ, you’re broken. I don’t know why I expected anything different…

[Sidenote: Thanks to Joel for updating the planet link to my blog so quickly. It’s all fixed on Planet now]

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Now that it’s all over the news, I can say a bit more.

The search down near Bridgend was for a missing woman reported on the news. She was missing since Saturday and it was clear from the start that we were looking for a body - the police were already holding someone in connecting with her disappearance. The South Wales police Specialist Search Unit were searching along with us, and it looks as though the body has indeed been found on some waste ground in Pontyclun, some distance from where we were searching. This has now publicly become a full murder inquiry.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

I did not get a break.

So yesterday as I started winding up and preparing to go home, the pager went off. An area standby for a rescue on Hay’s Bluff near Hay on Wye. So I headed up to base and caught the first response vehicle about to leave. Jumping on board, we headed off for what is a bit of a trek. We finally got to the pass just as the hill party was within 500m of the road and we pulled up to the incident as the pagers announced that “no further personnel required.” We jumped out and chatted for a while before deciding it was time to head home. Waiting in the Landrover, our deputy team leader’s phone rang - it was Dyfed Powys police asking us to attend an incident in the waterfalls - a missing couple, one with a leg injury.

We quickly got things arranged and headed off down the road for a mostly uneventful blue light drive back to the waterfalls - on the other side of our area. We did have one rather exciting moment thanks to a patch of ice but it wasn’t until we got to Brecon that things started getting really interesting. As we were approaching Brecon, Huw, the deputy team leader’s pager went off. There was what looked like a third incident ongoing. Palming that one onto our team leader for a moment, we continued our journey down to the waterfalls. With hill parties heading into the area from four directions it wasn’t long before we found the casualties. We brought them back to base and had time to relax with a cup of coffee. This third incident was looking like a washout as we packed up to head home to re-pack the kit and refuel the vehicles.

Unfortunately, on the way home, the message came over the radios - our presence was required and so once again we were off. We all went via base to regroup - some people had to head off and we refuelled and put one vehicle back in the garage before driving off. The RV was near Bridgend and the Western Beacons team had already been called so we headed down. We then spent the rest of the night searching - I can’t really go into detail at the moment, but we didn’t get back to base until around 01hrs. We packed the vehicles up and I headed home to a nice comfortable bed.

Works seems like a break after all this…

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

[Originally written but not posted yesterday]

Wow.

On Saturday I was prepared. Not wanting to get caught out again, I got all my kit ready, ironed my uniform and got everything ready for my ambulance shift which started back up at 08hrs. I started pottering around the house and everything was going to plan until the pager went off. So I logged off, jumped in the car and headed up to base. As it turns out it was a dog rescue, which we completed quickly enough with the fire service before heading back to base. I headed back home and settled down for the afternoon to clean up the house a bit and watch the rugby. A great game, I was most surprised to be able to watch it all when the phone rang - red call to a gentleman with difficulty breathing. So I headed off across Caerphilly to find this poor gentleman in the later stages of heart failure, with COPD, multiple pulmonary embolisms - he was already very ill, and an illness in the family was not helping. A little confusion and once the crew arrived, a few things became clearer - this was actually a blue call - a scheduled ambulance pick up into hospital. However, it transpires that in the discussions between the doctor and the control room, it had been categorised as a red call - effectively a 999 emergency call. Given his condition, this wasn’t surprising and we were just saying goodbye to the crew when my phone rang.

I’d left my pager at home and this was Les, one of our team members who was coming with me on Sunday to a Scenes of Crime training course at Police HQ. As we were on the phone, he said to me “Get up to base quick then. Gwent police have just called.” So I headed back to the car, handed the shift over to Linda and headed up the A470 sharpish. Straight back to New Tredegar where we’d rescued the dog, this time we had an 11 year old girl with a broken leg. We turned up and once again the fire service were there. After a brief assist, we happily headed home for some food.

I was enjoying the rest of my night and determined to go to bed early when the phone rang. Red call to a patient complaining of chest pains in Penyrheol. We took ages to find it - if you’re anything to do with the layout of roads and names of roads, please think about the poor people trying to find houses in an emergency. Equally, folks, please put your house number clearly on the outside. Anyway, we headed in to find a middle aged chap gripping his chest and groaning with pain every time he breathed. He described the pain as a crushing, gripping pain that spread from his chest to his back and up into his jaw. We couldn’t get a pulse - his arms were so tense from the pain. Linda and I shared a glance and suddenly the chap stopped breathing. He pitched forwards and I threw my hands up to catch him, and as he hit my hands, he drew a breath and carried on. I was worried.

I called control - we had nothing en route to back us up. No RRVs in the area and there wasn’t anything available. I gave them an update and an enormous thanks to the controller for his efforts. He found us an ambulance and gave me an ETA of 30 minutes. He then found me a paramedic in an RRV who turned up very quickly. In the meantime, some more history came out - the gentleman had fallen twice that day, once on his back and once on his front. I considered that his pain was related to the injury for a moment, but even if it was, the pain spreading into his jaw was inconsistent with the injury he described, so we carried on assuming it was cardiac-related. When we finally got the RRV’s ECG out and got a 12-lead readout, his heart looked fine, though because of his pain, it was difficult to tell. A quick shot of morphine and his pain was history. We then had another readout which didn’t concern the paramedic - a good thing. We could finally talk to this chap properly and it transpired that the pain in his back was worst. The crew quickly turned up after that and they took him in to get checked out. Were we right? Well, tough call - the paramedic on the RRV acknowledged that the back and chest pain was most likely related to his injury, but his neck pain was inconsistent. It’s possible he’d had a cardiac incident as well.

We headed home and as I was getting into the house the phone rang again - head injury. Off we went, this time it was an elderly lady. She was on Wharfarin and had a nose bleed - a potentially dangerous condition for someone whose on drugs to stop the blood from clotting. We sat with her until the ambulance came to take her in. I then stood down from my shift and went home to get a much needed 3 hours’ sleep.

The course on Sunday was cracking - very valuable and while it didn’t teach us everything about scenes of crime (or as someone kept saying - signs of cream), it gave us a basic introduction to the concepts. Certainly useful when we come across cases where it’s too dangerous for a SOCO to get to the scene and we have to collect evidence on their behalf. I was home by 17hrs and I lay down for a nap at 18hrs, sleeping most of the way through the night.

Time for a break.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

Tonight was supposed to be a night of working with the Ambulance service, but that plan went straight out the window when the pager went off at around 1700.

Leaving work, I headed off to base where I jumped in the first response Landrover and headed off. We’d been requested by the Cave Rescue team who had been rescuing a young woman with a dislocated knee from Porth yr Ogof. Fearing a carry out from the cave entrance and having been involved in a rescue for several hours already, they wanted some assistance to carry the lady out. As it turned out, she was of a strong mettle and hobbled herself out with some assistance. With that done, we packed our kit away and headed back.

By the time I’d gone home to change it was gone 2000 and I headed out to pick up the first responder kit. Meeting up with Nigel and Alison we chatted for a while before suddenly the phone rang - we had a red call in Abertridwr. Off we went to a lady with breathing difficulties. As we turned up it was apparent that she had chronic emphysema and as I was getting out a 100% mask to replace the 28% one she was wearing, the crew arrived. Alison and Nigel had accompanied me and I’d called Dilwyn and Rachel who were on shift with me. As the crew came in, things kicked off - a member of the public approached from outside saying that someone had been knocked down. Leaving the crew to the lady, we headed outside to check him out.

A young man was lying on the floor apparently unconscious. Eliciting a response from him wasn’t too difficult though he vaguely mumbled. It transpired he’d drunk half a litre of vodka and had been assaulted. I’d asked for a police presence and a second truck. There was no ambulance available so we kept an eye on the casualty while the police worked out what had happened. Eventually we managed to get him to respond - fairly explosively as it turns out and we backed off suddenly as the police stepped in. Dad was there by that point and as I pointed out to the police that now he was walking around there was nothing wrong with Dad taking him down to A&E as he was more drunk than anything else. The police agreed and Dad gladly put him in the back of the car as I stood down the ambulance.

Rachel and I went to fill in our paperwork and just as we were finishing my phone rang. Looking confused I answered to hear the dulcet tones of Gav, manning the RRV desk in Control. But I’d diverted the phone already…? He gave me the details of a call with a suspended patient.

Rachel and I headed off and got to Bedwas where we rushed in to help. The crew wasn’t far behind us and together we worked on the man for some time before the crew finally called a stop. Sadly we’d not been able to revive the man and a large family came to grieve for his loss. After our work we cleared up and gently moved the man onto the bed where we covered him in a blanket - he’d vomited quite a lot and we had a fair amount of cleaning up to do. Eventually, with the police on scene, we headed off home. For me, to wash my jacket and trousers which both had vomitus on them…and I’m on duty tomorrow again. For now, I need something to eat, put my clothes to dry and some sleep.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

We’re testing a DSL ordering system at the moment by trying to order a new DSL circuit into our London Datacenter. This involves talking to BT Openreach, albeit via our third party. This is where it gets interesting.

BT Openreach, the part of BT responsible for the exchanges and the physical copper that comes to your door, has an address matching system. You get a bronze, silver or gold match depending on whether BT Openreach already knows about the address (gold), whether Openreach doesn’t but it can find it in the Post Office database (silver) or not at all (bronze). Problem is that unless you have a gold match, you can’t book an engineer and since it’s a datacenter and there’s special site instructions for access and location, we want a match.

So, in goes the address for Redbus Sovereign House. Excellent - 3 Gold match addresses. We chose the top one and Simon and I stop for a second and blink. The address is <some ISP>, Floor 8, Telecity Redbus, Sovereign House, Marsh Wall, London. Problem with that is that Sovereign House only has 5 floors.

But it’s a gold match. So we booked it. Now we wait for the Engineer to call us when he arrives on site. “Er, hi, this order. Um, I can’t find the location listed…”

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

It’s been a very, very strange day.

It started badly at midnight as I was babysitting the replacement of a switch in our London datacenter and it was running over. I didn’t get to sleep until 0300. I did at least have the presence of mind to turn off the alarm clock before I finally went to sleep.

I got up around 1100 and pottered around the house - I was on duty with the first responders this weekend - which started badly. The first call was to a cardiac arrest in the pub about 300yds away. On scene within minutes, the patient looked bad but since CPR was ongoing I had to carry on. Rich arrived on the RRV shortly afterwards and was able to get a definite reading using his defib - asystole. The blood had started pooling and we stopped resuscitation at that point. Strangely, the overriding memories of that incident are that it felt like I was handling a chicken - loose skin over flesh over bone. The other one was the mistakes I made, but that comes with experience.

So after that I had to get some replacement parts - though the defib itself is fine, the pads are single-use, so I had to get some more. Also the defib stores information about each incident which needs downloading. Fortunately there was a training session on for new recruits so I popped over and had a quick chat with the Ambulance officer running the training. He quickly replaced the pads, but didn’t have a cable to download the information - not a problem, since the defib has sufficient memory for several incidents. More paperwork - and I suddenly found myself in front of the class talking about the incident I’d just been to. Following that, I found myself teaching a session on hypothermia - apparently, I’m the expert on this. News to me.

While we were there, we had a call, but then got stood down with no information. Not uncommon - but a few minutes later, we were called again - the RRV had requested our assistance. As it turned out it was a possible CVA that he wanted a hand with and knew that I was on duty. The call was just down the road from my house…but I was over on the wrong side of Caerphilly, so by the time we got there, the crew was already there and loading the patient on board. Back to pick up my car and then I headed home to meet up with Jon who wanted some driving experience in his new car. Before we could head off, we had a call to a lady feeling dizzy and nauseous. I got back just in time to catch the last 15 minutes of the England - Wales rugby match…and to my amazement saw us beat England in Twickenham. First time in 20 years…

Jon and I headed out for a while and on the way back we decided to grab a takeaway. Just as we got out of the car, the phone went - call to the nursing home not half a mile away. I got there just as the RRV was arriving with the other Richard in it and we got that patient ready for the truck before heading back to the Indian to try again. This time we not only managed to buy food but headed home and almost got in the house before a neighbour asked me for help - there was a child with breathing difficulties. After a quick look at him, I suggested they pop him in to see the GP and headed back to the house to eat. Jon headed off then and I managed a few hours of relaxation before our next call - gentleman with chest pains. We headed down and spent some time looking after this chap until the RRV arrived.

I’ve not long got back from that and it looks as though things have calmed down for now. Five more hours to go….

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.

There’s an interesting article on the Asterisk VoIP News site. It appears as though the German government has been discussing the use of a “Skype Capture Unit” made by DigiTask. A trojan horse-style piece of software, it sits on your PC and sends copies of your Skype conversations to a remote server.

In principle, I have no problem with this - in fact, to a degree, I welcome it. It brings Skype back to the realms of telephones in terms of law enforcement and contrary to Big Brother theorists, despite even my own somewhat dubious police experiences at times, I do believe that this is a good thing and that the law enforcement agencies are, in general, trying to Do the Right Thing.

Originally published at Hypoxic witterings. Please leave any comments there.