Dedication
This collection is dedicated to:
- To the crewmates who worked with me over my nineteen years.
- To the EMTs and Paramedic mentors who taught me more on the road and in a crew room than any textbook ever could.
- To the control staff who somehow make sense of the chaos on the end of the telephone to give to us
- To the stations that became our second home — where the kettle was always on, the laughter came easy, and someone was always there when a shift stayed with you.
And especially to my family, who learnt, without complaint, that “I’ll be home on time” is more of a loose concept than a promise.
These essays mark the beginning of something I have been meaning to do for some time — a space to reflect on the road behind me and the lessons gathered along the way. What you’ll find here is only the start. Further pieces will follow regularly, each shaped by experience and written with honesty. If something here resonates with you, I hope you’ll return soon to continue the journey with me.
Some reflections shared here touch on the more challenging realities of ambulance service work. While written with care and respect, readers are encouraged to approach them with an awareness that certain themes may be emotionally affecting.
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The Water Babies
There is no manual for the relationship between the ambulance service and the fire service. Nobody sits you down and explains it. You just turn…
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The Call You Pray You Never Get
This story first appeared on my Facebook page in 2016. I wrote it the morning after, still in the middle of it. Returning to it…
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Not all injuries bleed
The room is often quiet when we arrive. Not peaceful quiet, but the kind that feels heavy. Someone sits in front of us — sometimes…
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The view from the other side!
You spend years learning how to read a room in seconds. Not the walls. Not the furniture. The people. The silence. The things that aren’t…
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The Conversations We Cannot Avoid
There are calls in the ambulance service where the clinical picture is not the hardest part of the job. The observations are straightforward, the diagnosis…
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The Calls We Take, The Moments We Miss
Most people assume the job changes you. They imagine the difficult calls, the long shifts, the pressure, and they’re right — it does change you….
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The Contract Between a Paramedic and the Community We Serve
After nineteen years in the ambulance service, I’ve realised something that sounds obvious but changes everything once you truly accept it: the public doesn’t just…
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Partners, Pressure, and Trust
Ambulance work looks simple from the outside. Two people arrive in an ambulance, one speaks, one drives, and a patient gets lifted, treated, and transported….
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The Quiet High: When Your Diagnosis Is Right (and You Finally Stop Doubting Yourself)
There’s a moment in this job that nobody outside it really understands, and if I’m honest, we don’t always talk about it properly inside it…
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The Paramedic Paradox: 19 Years of Saving Lives and Waiting to Be Found Out
In the Ambulance Service, we become masters of the poker face. Whether it’s a Category 1 Cardiac Arrest in a cramped terrace house or a…
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2 Crews for a Blue
When I started in the Ambulance Service, Northern Ireland was meant to be in the “after” years. The peace process was in place, political structures…
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From EMT to Paramedic: Same Uniform, Much Bigger Headache
The funny thing about moving from EMT to paramedic is that, from the outside, it looks like nothing changes: same green uniform and same station…
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The Ambulance Station: Our Second Home
In the Ambulance Service, the station is not merely a building or logistical hub; it is a high-pressure ecosystem governed by a series of unwritten…
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The 19-Year Handover: A Dispatch from the Frontline
In the ambulance service, the “handover” is a sacred ritual. It is the moment where responsibility shifts from one set of shoulders to another. It…
