000 is the emergency number in Australia and many parts of the world. We have to call it triple zero, not triple O because a while ago when a kid was asked to called triple O; he dialled 666 instead of 000 as MNO was under number 6. I learned that during my Safety Aid Training course.
This morning the day started as normal. I was just glad that it was Friday and was looking forward to the weekend when I came to work. If you don’t know it, Australians love their coffee but they don’t like filter or homemade ones but they love barista made coffee from the cafés. Every morning at work, one of us will do the coffee round and bring coffee for all of us in the department. It is a kind of routine now and everyone knows what others drink. Actually even the person at the café knows what we drink so all we have to say is 5 coffees please, for H, M, T, S and J.
I am not a big coffee drinker but still go for hot chocolate sometimes. So this morning when my boss was going for her coffee, she asked me if I wanted my hot chocolate. I said “No Thanks’ and she went to grab her coffee.
After 10 minutes, one of my colleagues came running inside the office looking for a fist aid kit. She looked panicked so I asked her what happened. She said that on the way back to work from the coffee shop, my boss tripped and fell down on the footpath. Her face hit the concrete footpath cutting her jaw. The hot coffee she was carrying was all over her as well.
I didn’t know what to do so I went out to check on her. By this time she was in the bathroom with people trying to help her. While I was there, she told us that she was feeling dizzy so we thought it was best if we called an ambulance for her. Someone just picked my name and said call the ambulance.
I have never called an ambulance in my life before but I’ve been in one of them once. I was a bit panicked but picked up my phone and dialled 000. A lady picked up the phone in 2 rings and asked if I wanted ’Police’, ‘Fire’ or ‘Ambulance’. I told her I required ambulance and then she asked the address. Then she transferred me to another lady who asked me in details how the patience was. I went on describing what happened and how she was looked a bit pale and was complaining of dizziness. Normally I am calm on the phone but today something in my head made words just rush out of my mouth and I don’t even know now what I said. I was still on the phone when I heard the siren.
I rushed out to bring the ambos inside. It was around 10 minutes from the time of the call and they arrived at the front door so I should say that was not bad. Others were still looking after my boss when I ushered the ambo guys in and they came and checked on her.
I never knew that my boss has a very strong reaction if she sees any blood. After the check up they said that she was ok and she had dizziness because she saw so much blood. They fixed her bleeding jaw and did some more check up. They had her blood sugar checked, ECG and temperature tested. They said it looked good and unless she felt dizzy again, they could let her rest at office itself.
After the ambos left, we made sure she had plenty of water to drink until her husband came and picked her up to take her home. We were talking normally when her chin started to bleed again so I put some dressing on the wound. She went home after that. I hope she will be fine soon and will be back to work next week.
I just completed one part of the Safety Aid course recently. It was so much to learn but was fun as well. I never thought I would be using some of those skills anytime soon. But today when I was in a real situation I was lost on what to do or where to start. Thank god this wasn’t a life threatening situation and there were many more people around to help but I have to remind myself to be clam and composed if ever I am in that kind of situation. I sometimes wonder if the adrenaline will kick in for me when I have to make a right decision in such a situation. I crossed my fingers and prayed that day would never come in my life. For now, I am just looking forward to spending the rest of the evening and the weekend with my hubby relaxing. Happy weekend everyone.
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