Just as a bit of general information, Creamfields is a 16 hour dance music event that is held in a field. This year it was in Runcorn rather than the usual venue Liverpool. Now this is not a duty where you turn up, do a couple of hours and then head home, nope, with this duty you're in it all night with maybe a couple of hours sleep if you're very lucky. We were onsite from about 1pm, and stayed onsite til 8am the next day. Between the usual cases of blistered feet there were some more interesting people and injuries.
There were the usual people who never seem to believe us when we tell them we aren't getting paid for doing the first aid cover. SJA itself is, but not the members, we're all lowly volunteers (who happen to get into top events for free, so it aint all bad).
There was the gent who didn't need treatment, but as he studied medieval history, he decided to tell us of the history of St John Ambulance and to "remember that we are warrior monks". I did feel kind of inspired but was too tired to go and beat up casualties.
There were a couple of people smuggling drugs into the event in weird and wonderful places, and on that subject I shall say no more.
There was the patient who ran off on us. He gave us his first name, Jason*, and that is all the information we had about him since once he was attached up to some oxygen he decided he was better and ran off into the night. If anyone sees him, he's a chap about yay high, a bootprint on his head and an oxygen mask around his neck.
I then spent half an hour of my rest break filling in a form just in case he was brought back in later. I only got 15 minutes sleep because of that.
There was a lovely person who had taken a bit too much and needed medical attention because of it. They felt a little idiotic and realised not to take anything next time they came along to an event like this. Also they offered to buy me a drink if they ever saw me again. Cheers!
On the darker side several people came in for advice because they had been jabbed by someone with a needle, and there were several assaults. However this year didn't bring any stabbings as far as I'm aware.
A fairly busy night anyhow. We were all dead by 6am, and had to stay operational until 7am (the time we are usually packed up and away) because of collapses outside the event. After packing up at 8am, we headed home and I slept until 4pm. Happy day.
Here's a picture taken at around 6am to show how hard we worked throughout the night...
Thanks to SJA, MRL and NWAS for working so hard last night and making it a good night.
* Not real name
2 comments:
Bless your heart for volunteering! Because I deal with inmates on a daily basis, I'd rather not deal with the public. You certainly had some strange encounters.
Greeting from a fellow SJA volunteer! Neat uniforms! We had duties like this as well where we go on all night LOL.
Take care!
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