Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Noise

The noise in a busy Emergency department is hard to describe ~ for example, the sound of an autistic child (who had fallen and hit his head on some slate tiles, and was in for observation) alternately screaming at the top of his lungs or laughing, depending on his mood (which changed rapidly depending on the stimulus)...now ~ beneath that noise you hear people vomiting (loudly or quietly, you can get loud vomiters, or "retchers" as I think of them, and quiet ones, we often get the loud ones). Then there are the people moaning with pain counterpointed by the suicide attempts or O.Ders crying because they feel so miserable and the drunks and psychotics yelling abuse and/or flipping out in various vocal ways. Blending in with these noises is the continual hum and chatter of doctors and nurses talking to patients and relatives interspersed at random by the intercom system bleeping! loudly to get attention followed by a sometimes audible announcement (often to ask some twat to move their vehicle out of the ambulance bay) Today for extra noise we also had a plumber working on one of the sinks in my area with a few clangs and clatters of his tools and fittings...
OK...I suppose the noise in a busy emergency system isn't that hard to describe after all....
Oh, and I think it might have actually missed this blogs first birthday, being the terribly neglectful parent-of-the-blog that I have been lately...checking...Yes, I missed it! It was ONE YEAR OLD on the first of this month! Well there you go, break out the bubbly party-hats and streamers for a belated party...c'mon....let's make some NOISE!!!
p.s. Drop Cap idea borrowed from Meg at Mandarin Design, because...well she always has these great ideas! Thanks Meg!

5 Comments:

Blogger bryn said...

and happy birthday wee bloggie...

i hear those er stories daily from sis...

19/8/04 12:26  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

YAAAAYY! *thows confetti* Happy Birthday, Punk Clown Daze!!
Hey, I always say any excuse for a partay!
Amy

26/8/04 13:29  
Blogger Cameron Stephen said...

Thanks everyone!

30/8/04 10:36  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Belated blogiversary, PunkClown. Keep on Blogging.

Whilst I'm here, I seem to remember U R an astronomy geek. Recommend a first 'scope to me (I don't want to spend over 200 Euros) or point me to a site that discusses first scope stuff pls.

Stu Savory (www.savory.de/blog.htm)

1/9/04 02:30  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretty fair description. As an E.R. tech, the only things I'd add are the telemetry monitor alarms at the nurse's station and the surround sound-ish echo from the monitor in the patient's room, and the ambulance radio reports.

Found your blog on blogorama and like it so far -- think I'll be reading this one often. Thanks for publishing it!

Mike
What is I-Tach?mike [AT] mike-morgan [DOT] com

23/9/04 13:35  

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