Mayday Mayday, Man Down (Chapter 2)

The sound from the alarm clock only ceased when a hairy outstretched arm banged down hard on its snooze button to end its insistent pecking for another day.

Reece turned onto his side to view the dial though he knew he had set the alarm for 5.30am. Some habits were hard to break. He turned it off via the slide switch to ensure it did not reprise its role in 5 minutes time and turned onto his back staring at the ceiling.

These moments were always the same it seemed, wondering what jobs the days work would bring. Ponder by name, Ponder by nature it seemed for Reece Ponder was a paramedic, and he liked to think, a very good one and he reveled in the daily lottery of calls which would invariably see him thrust into the middle of some peoples darkest hours but also have the satisfaction of knowing that on most occasions he played a small part in the process of their recovery, however long that would take.

Reece was not to know that today would not be most occasions.

He threw the duvet off his body and lurched out onto his feet, before gingerly loping across the landing to the bathroom. In the shower Reece thought about his upcoming shift and chuckled as he realized the date. May 1st. That always got the crews laughing. Mayday Mayday, man down!

He finished in the shower and got dressed into his work gear before gulping down two weetabix and slurping down a cup of strong tea. It was always a last minute rush to get in the car and drive the 5 miles to the ambulance station but Reece didn't feel minded to change his routine to allow a more sedate start to his day. Rushing was part of his day and he liked it that way.

He drove through the gates of the ambulance station and parked around the back of the building in the space allotted for staff parking. Lostwherewithall was a smallish town in size but was just big enough to prevent everyone knowing each other or some other member of their family, so prevented lots of gossip when fate or just bad luck intervened in someones day. Grabbing his shoulder bag he locked his car and turned to walk into the building noticing at once Sharon Marshall or 'Shaz' as she was known by the team also walking in.

Sharon was his work partner today and she was always brilliant to work alongside. Not only was she a damn good ambulance technician she was also an unrivaled ambulance driver. When the blues and twos were in operation she went into a kind of intense concentration that Reece had never seen before. 

Many a time while travelling at speed she had anticipated the ill judged manoeuvres of other drivers or pedestrians and avoided calamities untold with just the slightest mutter to herself and her eyes never straying from the road ahead. This helped to keep Reece calm and able to gather his thoughts about the upcoming job.

Their shift started slowly, it seemed the town was having a good health and accident free day, which was great unless you were tired of checking the equipment and expiry dates of consumables in an ambulance! Reece had to admit he was a bit bored. He wasn't happy having a 'relaxing' day no matter if the company was amiable. Time was dragging and Reece was beginning to wish he was on a leave day.

The call when it came was something of a shock. Reports of a man collapsed at the Littlehope health centre. Details were sketchy, which was not unusual but it seemed the patient had attended a booked appointment and had suffered a medical event while there. Sharon soon had her foot hard on the accelerator pedal. The center was less than 10 minutes from the ambulance station and they were soon drawing up outside. Reece jumped down and grabbing his medical bag moved quickly in through the doors where he was immediately shown into one of the consultation rooms by the receptionist.

Doctor Anzus who had been reviewing the patient filled them in on the actions taken since the patient had collapsed. Reece checked for vital signs as Sharon wound a blood pressure cuff around his arm. The receptionist Nicola had informed them that the patient was named Jeremy Cann, a local man in his late fifties who had made a private appointment complaining of general malaise.

"Is the cuff fully inflated?" he asked Sharon,

" Yes, it's as tight as a noose" she replied.

"His blood pressure has dropped and I think he is slipping into cardiac arrest"

They worked quickly to initiate CPR. Dr Anzus assisted Reece with this as Sharon left to update control and request further assistance. 30 chest compression's, 2 breaths, rinse and repeat endlessly it seemed until they would stop to check output. Shocks were administered, more in hope than expectation but nothing stirred on the screen.

How long? asked reece,

15 minutes and counting.

Back on the chest and cycle after cycle of CPR continued for 10 more minutes until doctor and paramedic were agreed that continuing was futile, Mr Jeremy Cann was sadly deceased.

Dr Anzus dabbed at his sweating brow with a handkerchief and Reece took a couple of deep breaths to gather himself after all the physical exertion. Despite his better judgment of how he should be thinking at this time he couldn't help the thought from coming into his mind. 

Mayday Mayday Man Down!

Is Everybody Psychic?

Have you ever experienced something that you had dreamt or imagined experiencing previously? The French have a quaint saying for this, Déjà vu or ‘already seen’. Déjà vu experiences happen more frequently and to more people than you may think with some reports saying that as many as 70% of the population may have had some form of Déjà vu experience.

 Our reaction to these events can vary enormously with the majority reporting feeling just a little disconcerted by the event, others feel a mild sense of bewilderment and a few can become so affected they feel temporarily overwhelmed. These people often report becoming light headed and nauseous. Why these events happen is the focus of intense debate. Some psychiatrists feel that there is a brain anomaly which tricks us to believe that the present is in fact the past so has already happened, while many parapsychologists believe the events are related to past life experiences.

They argue that to have these experiences a person has to possess some form of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) or sixth sense.

So does having a Déjà vu experience mean some form of psychic ability? If it did of course this would seem to suggest a large portion of the population have some psychic ability, albeit they may not realise it.

While accepting that I can offer little in the way of hard evidence and not wishing to ride rough shod over the reader’s beliefs I would have to contend that this may be a simplistic and unlikely scenario, however it is not a complete leap of faith to suspect that people who have had a Déjà vu experience could perhaps be able to process information, at times, from a deeper part of the consciousness and possess some ability to use the mind to see and feel more of what’s going on around them. It follows that these people may be more open and intuitive, which allow them to be more aware of their surroundings and bring to the fore a part of the sub-conscious area of their brain. 

Of course there are always people ready to offer up their ‘psychic’ ability to the needy and unwary for the appropriate fee. There’s no doubt that some people purchase an extremely useful and some would argue necessary benefit, that is they feel comfort and attain an inner peace from being told that grandad is pain free and still watches over them but is it someone with genuine psychic ability imparting this message or a skilled cold reader, able to pick up on any visual or verbal clues?
Hmm, Please comment and let me know what you think.

“So what of me?” I hear you say, can I claim any psychic abilities? Unfortunately there is a world of difference between seeing the future and making educated guesses as to where life is leading. I’ll give you an example;

If I were to state that I have had a Déjà vu experience and England will win the world cup in 2026, beating Argentina in the final 2-0 with Eze and Watkins scoring the goals and this were to happen, I would rightly claim guru status and a psychic ability so brilliant that you should all bow down in awe of nostrachirpus. On the other hand if I were to say that England scrape through the group stages before losing to Germany in a penalty shoot-out, this would be an entirely reasonable assumption to make on previous history and limited expectations so not difficult to imagine this scenario coming to pass even though it would seem that I had somehow seen into the future.

So there it is, I am psychic and I see another disappointing world cup or have I?? mmm, we'll have to wait until the summer of next year to find out!

Nostrachirpus hopes to rival the predictive feats of Psychic Paul the octopus in 2010.