[St. John Ambulance Truck that I rode on at the back)With only 6 hours of sleep, I was still able to wake up for my first every duty. It took an hour to pick up other kids that were on the duty as well and then we finally arrived at the place to pick up this ambulance from the picture above. It's kind of big and roomy inside but I have a big problem with the seatbelts. Throughout the carride to our duty, I was wobbling because I had no seatbelt or actually I could not find one on the seat. I could either strap myself on, like a stretcher or just sit there and fall as the driver kept braking. I would usually fall down on a net on my side as the truck stopped. Throughout the journey, it was like this and my seat didn't even feel comfortable.
So we finally arrived at the duty location which was a football stadium. It was a minor league and it was only half a stadium. Not an actual stadium, there was only one side with bleachers and on the other side there was grass. The grass part was where we put up our first-aid booth. We got roasted since there were few clouds in the sky. One of our teammates had sunscreen but it was outdated. Oh well, we all put it on because it was so darn sunny. But I forgot to put sunscreen on my nose and its kind of red from the sunburn. Not only that, we had to stand because they didn't have chair for us. For the chairs, we used a stretcher so we can sit because to be honest, I doubt you can stand for like 5 hours. Also, they only gave us a table which was broken as well. That's great! and while we entered this place. It felt like we were unwelcomed. Everyone was staring at us with glares and such.
We watched the game progress from peewee kids that are aged from 7-9 yrs old to 12-13 yrs old to 16-17 yrs old which were my age. Their physical size were so different as the age group changed. Well here is what I mean, we watched like 5 games, firstly 3 games of 7-9 yrs old, then a game with 12-13 yrs old and then last of all 16-17 yrs old. Its quite funny, most of the cases were from 7-9 yrs old and not the older kids. Although the older kids were rough, I think they just held the pain in because it was bruises and stuff. They know the drill which was ice pack and to stop moving it. But for the little kids, whenever they felt hurt, they would lie on the field. Then we would have to run to the middle of the field and treat him. I actually liked having injuries because it was so boring just sitting on the stretcher. It didn't feel that good and I couldn't lie back either. Most of the injuries were like bruises hand, legs, stomachache. Can you believe this though, we ran out of ice packs, but its not surprising since every bruise requires an ice pack to reduce the swelling. If every kid that came running to us wanted an ice pack, it would definitely run out. This was the case for us but the thing is, our supply of ice packs were low at the start. We had only like 7 which was pretty sad because it had to last for 7 hours. We used it all up in 3 hours.
Finally after 2 hours, it was lunch. From our sheet which we had to read and understand before coming to the duty, it said lunch was provided. Guess what!? It ain't and we had to buy it ourselves. However our SJA organization was able to re-imburse, but it would take really long before we got our money back. We can say it was provided but it was all good because I got a jumbo italian hot dog. It was so tasty especially with a light breakfast and a long long day ahead of us. I was so thirsty though.
The next five hours passed by really slowly. However it ended soon enough and when it was the last ten minutes, one of our first-aiders said it would be funny if a serious case happened. And guess what, it happened. Just 2 minutes before the very last football game, an injury happened. A football player had hurt his ribs. Apparently he cracked 3 of his ribs just a week before and it was happening again. He could not get up or walk and we had to give him a stretcher. Then we had to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. It was pretty intense but I was somewhat disappointed with the ambulance. It took them over 15 minutes to get here. A person would have died by then if it was a more serious injury but I learned that they prioritize it. No wonder they were so late.
That was it.. and now I am in big trouble because apparently, I listened to a lower-ranked officer than a higher-ranked officer. I should have listened to the higher-ranked officer because he was higher ranked for a reason and now I am in trouble.
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