After having the night from hell on the ambulance and not having a second to breathe never mind eat, I was more than ready to have a nice relaxed evening driving, praying for easy jobs. Of course that didn't happen, but one of the calls especially stood out.
A 92 year old lady had fallen over in her excruciatingly tiny kitchen. A sweet old dear, that wasn't one to complain and was ever so apologetic for having to call us out at this time. It was just after midnight, so obviously I wondered what she was still doing up, never mind us!
Anyway, when we arrived her 96 year old husband was sat in his arm chair, a little hard of hearing, but kept asking questions of his wife. Two others were also stood in the small living room, no obvious relation to the elderly couple, but had been there since the call half an hour ago.
As it transpires the elderly woman had lost her footing on the little step in the kitchen letting the cat back in the house. Then, in a lot of pain, realised that she couldn't get up. Her husband didn't know what to do so ran out into the street shouting for help. Now, I realise that this sounds like a bad rom-com, full on Notebook style, but there's a point to it.
So, elderly man in the street shouting for help at midnight. A guy was on his way home from the bus stop, he couldn't be more than 22, had heard this man's cries for help. Not knowing either of each other the young lad went to the aid of this unknown man, similarly he had let the young lad into his home. Very trusting with some of the youths today.
The young lad rang for an ambulance, hence our arrival, whilst a neighbour of the elderly couple also came to help after hearing the cries. By the time we got there and had got this lady off the floor, the young lad was making the elderly man a cup of tea and sat next to him having a chat. The other neighbour, a matron at a local hospital, was calling the man's daughter to come down to stay with him, and making sure he had had dinner earlier in the evening.
By the time we were ready to leave for the hospital, the young lad and the female neighbour were going to wait till the daughter arrived, to make sure the elderly man was ok. The young lad could have left as soon as the female neighbour arrived. There was nothing keeping him there, he had no medical skills like the female neighbour, or ourselves. He was just a kind-hearted young man, for a change, who had run to the aid of an elderly man's cries for help, something many youths today would ignore and laugh at, but he was willing to stay till the very end. It was 01:30 on a Sunday evening, with the daughter not arriving for at least another half an hour, yet he was showing no signs of leaving...Faith in humanity is once again restored. I wonder how long it will take for someone to undo all the hard-work this guy has done in my head.
