STATE RUSH VOMIT HEALER
SERVICE!

As a specialist centre the Paediatric Intensive
Care Unit at the 'Saline Nerve Child Hospital'
operates a "retrieval service"; which means
that when a critically ill child is admitted to
a District General Hospital a team is sent out
from SNC to stabilise the patient and transfer
them safely back to our unit. To this end we now
have a dedicated ambulance with a specialist
driver and a senior doctor and nurse on standby.

This is not how things were 15 years ago when
"paediatric intensive care" was a novel concept
in this country; and the idea of a "retrieval
service" was totally alien.... the accepted
practice at the time was that the referring
hospital would transfer the patient to our unit
for specialist care.

In the early days when we pioneered this service
I remember that our team would go out in a taxi
with as much gear as we could carry between us.
We would stabilise the patient and then arrange
a transfer back to SNC with a regular ambulance.

In order to train up doctors and nurses in these
skills we might take along a junior to shadow us.
As a senior nurse in children's intensive care
I would often go "out on retrieval"! On one
particular occasion I went out on a call with
Gavin M who was one of our senior medical
team (he is now a consultant paediatric
intensivist at St Elsewhere in the Midlands)
and a nurse called "Caz" who was learning
the ropes.

On this particular call we had to get from
central London to Worthing on the south coast
of England. In those days we did not have a
specialist ambulance but by this time we had
just enough kudos to blag a ride on a "Rapid
Response Unit" vehicle belonging to the London
Ambulance Service. We stowed our gear
and piled in to the Renault Espace and took off
to Worthing.

Now the crucial thing to bear in mind is that
there are two ways to get to get to Worthing
after leaving the motorway from London;
continue on the 'A'road to Brighton and then
follow the south coast road or cut across
country. On this trip the driver went across
country.

Travelling under blue lights I generally find
exciting - cutting through red lights and
shooting down the wrong side of the road...
no problem. What I had a problem with on
this trip were the sudden accelerations and
decelerations! And the journey to Worthing
is a long one - and felt interminable as I
started to feel queasy. I wound down the
window and took some sips of water, but
as the relentless stopping and starting took
its toll on my stomach I knew that I wouldn't
be able to hold onto the contents much
longer. As soon as I admitted that thought
I started chucking up.

Cramped in the back of the vehicle I just
managed to grab a 'sharps bin' in the nick
of time to receive my stomach contents.
And the journey went on and on and on....
with me heaving into this receptacle the
rest of the way. Eventually I had nothing
left to vomit but I was still retching.

After an eternity we pulled up at the
hospital in Worthing and got out of the
car. As soon as I stood up my legs buckled
under me and I felt faint and clammy.
"Pete, are you alright?"
"I'll be fine. I'm okay", I said wanly as I slumped
back into the car.
"You look awful!"
"I'm okay, I'm okay", I said bravely.
"Well you don't look it - go lie down somewhere
and join us when you feel better."
"Okay."
Then Gavin and Caz continued on their 'mercy
dash' while I stumbled into the Accident &
Emergency Department of Worthing Hospital.
I found some chairs and lay down on them among
all the drunks and other casualties of 'chucking
out time'; it was around midnight by now.

I lay there for some time and realised that
the nausea wasn't going to go away, so
I hobbled over to casualty reception and booked
myself in!

The staff took pity on me - I was in uniform
remember - I got seen quickly and was
prescribled an anti-emetic... which I had as an
injection in my bum!

Eventually Gavin & Caz retrieved me from
A&E and we made the journey back to
London. They kindly sat me in the front
of the ambulance so I never even saw
the patient we had gone for until we
arrived back at SNC; for all the use I
was on this retrieval I needn't have gone!

Fortunately the child Gavin & Caz collected
was absolutely fine without my ministrations
- which only goes to prove that none of us
are indispensable!