“People are watching Netflix while they’re driving along”
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Welcome back, Derval MacDonald with you this morning. Have a quick listen to this.
Five seconds, I kind of knew, OK, something severely is wrong here. Like, I just kind of remember opening the door and trying to, like, slump out. And then I realized, like, I actually can't move my legs. We're now on the deaths of two young men in their late teens in a road crash. My right leg, there's extensive damage to it. I'm in constant pain every single day with my arm from trauma, nerve damage. I wouldn't wish it on me. Three people have unfortunately been confirmed deceased at this scene, and that's despite the best efforts of emergency services.
There we go. A road traffic accident is everyone's worst nightmare and sadly very familiar in our news. We just heard last night that a woman died and a child is in critical condition after an accident in Shercock in Cavan. But when the unexpected happens, one of the first to arrive in the scene is the likes of my next guest, paramedic Ger O'Dea, who is a community engagement manager from the National Ambulance Service. You're very, very welcome, Ger.
Good morning and thank you for having me.
Now, you're going to talk to us through the, I suppose, the anatomy of a car accident and also make a road safety appeal ahead of the upcoming bank holiday weekend. And just to say for anyone who has ever experienced a road traffic accident or who may have been affected by one, this might be a slightly hard listen, but it's a really important conversation too. Ger, is it a vocation? You've been a paramedic for 21 years. What was it that drew you to the profession?
Yeah, I suppose before I joined the ambulance service, I was in the fire service for six years. And believe it or not, it was a TV show that drew me to the profession, which was London's Burning. And it was an old series about the London Fire Brigade. And from there, I always kind of aspired to be a firefighter. And thankfully, I was successful in joining the fire service at the time. But I suppose over time, my interest changed slightly where I started to gravitate more towards dealing with the patients and those who were injured as opposed to being the firefighter, you know, with the jaws of life cutting the roof off a car. And then, you know, again, opportunity came, ambulance service in Cork at the time we were recruiting.
And 21 years later, I'm, you know, here I am.
And any time you speak to anyone who works with, you know, our emergency service, our frontline workers, you know, they talk about how it's a privilege, you know, to do what they do. And I'm sure you must hear yourself described as you and your colleagues as angels all of the time. Do you see it like that?
Yeah, I suppose you do hear Harris being called, you know, all sorts of nice names like that. And it's lovely to hear it. But, you know, we don't do the job for that level of praise. The praise for us is, as you said, being privileged and being able to go into somebody's house, most likely in the worst moments of their lives. And it could be, you know, taking away their pain until we get them to the hospital, helping them to breathe a little bit better. You know, whatever treatment we can provide, you know, to make that person just a little bit more comfortable. You know, that is a privilege to have a job like that.
And it's such a human... because people in that situation, their, you know, their dignity, their, you know, everything, they're so vulnerable in those moments, aren't we, when we need our frontline services?
They are. And often, you know, it's, you know, when people see the ambulance service, they think blue lights and sirens and all of that. But there's also a very huge part of that involves empathy and, you know, And just that personal human touch where it could be as simple as putting your hand on somebody's shoulder to tell them they're going to be OK. I'm here now. We're going to mind you. Or holding somebody's hand in the back of the ambulance, going into the hospital. You know, no fancy stuff at all.
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