A Day at the Races
Today I was providing first aid cover at a racecourse, it was a large race meeting today so they were expecting thousands of people, and it was thousands of people they got. Thankfully we didn’t get many casualties but typically, the last race something just had to happen…
The race was 10 minutes late starting and what had happened was in the paddocks, one of the horses who was due out to race went a bit crazy, flung the jockey off him who fell onto the floor, kicked another person in the paddock in the head and then fell onto the jockey, lodging him between the horse and the wall. Didn’t sustain any apparent head injuries and was talking etc but was in a lot of pain in her hip area. She was administered morphine by the onsite doctor and strapped to a board to stablise her and then had to wait for the ambulance, the race happened and the meeting drew to a close by the time the ambulance got there, thankfully there were plenty of trained personel in the jockeys hospital (on site) including 1 red cross paramedic, two private ambulance paramedics, one county paramedic (only saw one… there was probably another around, though), a doctor and a nurse. Oh, and the trainer decided to say hello too, he was very upset and wouldn’t leave the jockey when we asked him to step back, in the end he spoke to the doctor he was most concerned about any possible spinal injuries, I guess seeing the jockey strapped to the board was a concern to him, but the doctor reassured him sayinng it was more of a precaution than anything and to stablise her. Anyway off the jockey went to hospital, the other person who was kicked in the head was surprisingly ok.
I got to drive one of the ambulances today. I was a bit reluctant because I was a bit nervous, haven’t drove this one before! My feet could hardly reach the pedals and the handbrake was in an odd place! Stalled it a few times and I think I scared one of the guys I was in the ambulance with, because when we got out of the ambulance and had to get back in, he jumped in the drivers seat before I had the chance to. Haha. I wasn’t THAT bad. Seriously, I wasn’t.
I’m waiting for Callum now, he’s staying a few days and I’m picking him up in 20 minutes, then going to my mums to drop off her Christmas presents.