NewsDetail
One of your children having an accident is every parent’s worst nightmare – it can happen so quickly and sadly, cannot always be prevented. Ms. Islam discovered this one day in late October 2015. She was using her treadmill at home and, in a split second, her four-year-old son, Moemen Amara, had put his hand in the back of the machine and got it stuck.
Ms. Islam recalls the panic that hit her: “I turned off the machine immediately and disconnected the power and tried to free my son’s hand. I could see the machine had badly grazed the palm of his hand and he was really crying - I was very worried. After struggling with it for some time I managed to free his hand but it was so swollen and had turned purple, and he couldn’t move his fingers. I called my husband for help, but he was stuck in traffic and I realized Moemen needed emergency medical attention so I called 999.”
“The person I spoke to was great – I gave them my location and they told me the ambulance was on its way. They asked me to get someone to meet the ambulance team downstairs so they would know where to go. I live in Al Rayyan, but the ambulance arrived within five minutes. There were two paramedics, one of which I was able to talk to in Arabic. One of them attended to Moemen and one was looking after me – I have to admit I was struggling to stay calm – I was really very upset and scared; I thought my son may lose his hand!”
“The ambulance paramedics were amazing – they were calm and caring and understanding. They examined Moemen’s hand and said it looked like there were no broken bones, but they would take us to the Emergency Department to be sure. They also gave Moemen some pain relief and, by the time we were in the ambulance, he had stopped crying and seemed a lot happier. We arrived at the hospital and went through triage and waited to see the doctor, which I was happy to do as Moemen was classed as a non-urgent patient and he was now happy and quiet. When the doctor saw us he took the time to do a proper examination and also arranged an x-ray to be certain that nothing was broken. He was also very kind and helpful and explained the follow-up care that Moemen would need for the abrasions on his hand, which were really very nasty.”
When asked how she felt about the whole experience, Ms. Islam said she would highly recommend the Ambulance Service and Hamad General Hospital’s Emergency Department to someone if they have an accident or medical emergency. “The care we received managed to turn, what was a truly terrible thing, into something positive. Moemen is fine, thanks God, and now every time he sees an ambulance he smiles and waves – his memories of the day are all good ones. I really want to thank everyone who helped us that day – from the call handler, to the paramedics, to the staff at the Emergency Department. They really cared for us well.”
Mr. Brendon Morris, Executive Director for the Ambulance Service, explained that his team is always on hand to support in a medical emergency. “Our job is to make, what is often the worst day of someone’s life, a little easier and less painful. We receive around 100,000 calls every year and they vary from case to case. Some are a case of life or death and some are thankfully not as serious. Our aim is to respond to every case in the appropriate way and ensure we provide the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to each and every patient we see.”