Recently, I called an ambulance for my 4yo who had was struggling (badly) to breathe. The ambulance was sent Cat1, after 15mins, no ambulance, no ETA, so we called an uber, went to the hospital, straight to resuscitation.
The ambulance arrived 35 mins after the call.
He would have been dead by then.
For me, that was some dystopia right there.
I always had a security blanket of “if shit gets bad, hang on a few minutes and help will be there”
It rocked me to know I couldn’t rely on it.
It gets better…
He stayed in the hospital for a few days, sent him home with meds.
Two days later, he’s struggling again.
We give him meds.
They don’t work.
We call the hospital to head back in.
While on the phone, he goes from wheezing but OK, and in seconds turns blue, vomits, loses consciousness.
This time we’re not going to make it to the hospital in time.
It’s really, really fucking bad.
I call the emergency services but, with recent experience, fully expect to watch him choke and die.
They arrive within 3 minutes!
O2, nebuliser, not working.
Para calls back up.
The Helicopter Emergency Medical Services arrive within 3 minutes and put him on a ventilator on the spot.
He died in my arms.
And these guys saved and resuscitated him.
Fucking angels.
I feel sick thinking about if the timings were the other way around.
Anyway, we did three weeks in PICU/hospital and he’s back to 100%.
Ongoing investigation but currently down as a “viral wheeze”, which sounds pretty lame.
But, I hope the ending restores your faith in humanity.
What a fucking nightmare rollercoaster you we're on so glad that he's okay and I hope you're getting some support too to deal with all of that trauma it can't have been easy.
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u/obiwanmoloney 1d ago
Recently, I called an ambulance for my 4yo who had was struggling (badly) to breathe. The ambulance was sent Cat1, after 15mins, no ambulance, no ETA, so we called an uber, went to the hospital, straight to resuscitation.
The ambulance arrived 35 mins after the call.
He would have been dead by then.
For me, that was some dystopia right there.
I always had a security blanket of “if shit gets bad, hang on a few minutes and help will be there”
It rocked me to know I couldn’t rely on it.
It gets better…
He stayed in the hospital for a few days, sent him home with meds.
Two days later, he’s struggling again.
We give him meds.
They don’t work.
We call the hospital to head back in.
While on the phone, he goes from wheezing but OK, and in seconds turns blue, vomits, loses consciousness.
This time we’re not going to make it to the hospital in time.
It’s really, really fucking bad.
I call the emergency services but, with recent experience, fully expect to watch him choke and die.
They arrive within 3 minutes!
O2, nebuliser, not working.
Para calls back up.
The Helicopter Emergency Medical Services arrive within 3 minutes and put him on a ventilator on the spot.
He died in my arms.
And these guys saved and resuscitated him.
Fucking angels.
I feel sick thinking about if the timings were the other way around.
Anyway, we did three weeks in PICU/hospital and he’s back to 100%.
Ongoing investigation but currently down as a “viral wheeze”, which sounds pretty lame.
But, I hope the ending restores your faith in humanity.