Prehospital JHB……..!

Prehospital JHB……..! Response car and Heli

2 long days pre-hospital in the response car ER24 and fire EMS.

While blue lighting around the roads of JHB at 180 kmph with Jan an experienced paramedic while contacting control and back up negotiating  the JHB traffic and corners he casually drops in stories from 18 years on the JHB roads- GSWs, armed robberies in peoples homes and shops etc, mass shootings, hijackings, train crashes, plane crashes, chasing from heli’s, paediatric drownings, riots, multiple stabbings, MVA pile ups, watching patients burn to death in cars that explode as arrive on scene, house fires… these scenarios as recent as 4 nights ago…. disclosed so innocently with a raise of the eyebrows followed by a grin….its the norm here!!

JHB has approximately 50 murders a day. SA has 1,200 deaths on the road a month and 60 000 South African’s meet their end violently every year

We attended MVAs, sports injuries, bike injuries, 1 x DOA. 1 x  ICU transfer actually the trauma patient from the heli earlier. Car on fire. Another call 12 people injured strike by lightening- 1 child died, 2 critically ill!

I experienced many of the private hospitals in JHB- trauma and ICU… and heli trauma patients.

The pre hospital system in JHB consist of provincial government and private companies, although both private EMS attends all calls with medical aid or not. Emergency calls are sieved by the individual call centres, as each company has they own public call number.

Pre- hospital is my favourite! Another shift tomorrow!

Heli for long day shift too... learning even more about SA history and culture... why its is the way it is...... its becoming clearer!!!

J