Eventful Day at the Races

Wow – I am knackered! What a day… we had to call out 4 ambulances and an air ambulance.

I was picked up at 9:45am and we somehow ended up on the M5. Which made us really late… finally getting there at 12am, just in time for the first race.

We were put on our fences and racing began. My fence was jinxed as we seemed to have got the most fallers… Throughout the races we had a few fallers who needed an ambulance. We had a women who dislocated her shoulder, her vocabulary was so colourful. We then had a more serious incident, a jockey fell off his horse, landed on his head. Red Cross were there straight away followed by the onsite doctor. He grazed his eye, blood coming down his face and had a suspected spinal injury. I was near one of the Red Cross ambulances, the only one with the spinal board so they radioed through and asked for our assistance ASAP. Jumped into the back and made our way there, we only got stuck in the mud as we went across the track.

Mark managed to drive us out of it through and we finally got there, then everyone pulled together to get him safely and securely onto the spinal board. He was responsive and alert with a good GCS but can’t take any chances, especially considering he was showing signs of spinal injury. We dialled 999 and asked for an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived but got stuck in the mud so the paramedics made their way down to us on foot. The paramedics and doctor then decided it would be safer to transport the jockey via air ambulance so we waited for the helicopter to arrive and transfered him to the air ambulance. Racing was postponed for 45 minutes, after the air ambulance left the course and we were back in positions, racing carried on…

Another race, another casualty. A jockey fell off his horse, landed in a ditch and the horse landed on top. Of course, he then needed an ambulance.

Last race, a jockey broken his collarbone in a few places and was very drowsy. Administered oxygen and entonox then transfered to another ambulance and taken to hospital.

One of the Red Cross ambulances got stuck down a ditch The driver, Mark, had his window open so his face was full of the hedge and the other Red Cross paramedic was in the back and she had to climb the stretcher as it was on such a slant. We got this message through on our radio…

“All stations, it appears 74 (number of the ambulance) is at a 45 degree angle” Of course, Mark is never going to live that down. There was a photographer at the front of the ambulance and he was just about to raise the camera to his face, then Mark said, “don’t you dare!” The ambulance had to be pulled out by a 4×4. Mark is never going to hear the end of that, it’ll be the subject of jokes for a while.

A bit later, one of the spectators asked us if we wanted some tea and we said yes please, they also asked if we’d like some whiskey in it and of course, we didn’t take any but Mark said, “I needed that 30 minutes ago”

A long day, last race was late by over an hour due to the holdups and casualties etc but still, got home around 7:15pm, so not that bad.

Tags: life, people, red cross