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Next meeting May3rd at the Day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm Guest speaker is Sally Scott who will give a talk on her role as a ‘heart failure specialist nurse’.
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Our speaker on April 1st was Dave Redman who is a Paramedic and Team leader based at Berwick Ambulance Station. He has been with the Ambulance Service since 1975 when he joined one of the south coast County Ambulance Services, after working as a mechanic for a few years after leaving school. He currently works 14 12 hour shifts a month, which is a mixture of nights and days, which equals a 42 hour week.
Dave set out explaining the National Health Framework for treatment for an ambulance attending a patient with suspected Heart Disease.There are set standards which everyone can expect, once into the back of the ambulance.Oxygen, and pain relief,A 12 lead ECG examination. ( 3, or 5 lead exams do not give sufficient detail a 12 lead test includes terminals on the ankles) If necessary the ECG machine can be linked to the Wansbeck by mobile phone, which is also carried on the ambulance
Age, circumstances of current treatment, pulse, and blood pressure together with a pain assessment on a scale 1 to 10 and history, are obtained, and provided all circumstances are favourable the decision to thrombolise will be taken. This is an injection, ideally given within 30 mins of the start of heart pain, which breaks up blot clots, and in ideal circumstances minimises damage to the heart, significantly improving chances of recovery. This injection costs £400 a shot, and cannot be given in every circumstance, age and if it has been administered to the patient in the previous year have a bearing.Paramedics are qualified to give this injection.Morphine is carried and can be administered. The patient is then conveyed to the nearest definative hospital which is either Borders General or Wansbeck. Very rarely does a patient now come to Berwick for a decision to be made.
Dave did comment on how the Ambulance Service had changed, and described some of his experiences as a Paramedic, which did lead to lots of questions and answers, and some of his personal experiences
Thank you Dave for your time.
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Watching your weight?
Green tea?
We know that keeping your weight down is a good idea for your heart and blood pressure and also helps protect against insulin resistance and diabetes. While you watch your weight, try having frequent cups of green tea. (Do not ‘stew’ the tea. Try a slice of lemon rather than milk. Delicious.)
Quotes from a recent review of a great deal of ongoing scientific work:
“The antiobesity effect of epigallocatechin gallate from green tea deserves more attention.
“During the last decade, the traditional notion that green tea consumption benefits health has received significant scientific attention and, particularly, the areas of cardiovascular disease and cancer were subject to numerous studies. Due to the ever-growing obesity pandemic, the antiobesity effects of green tea are being increasingly investigated in cell, animal, and human studies," scientists in Switzerland report in their review.
“Studies conducted with human subjects report reduced body weight and body fat, as well as increased fat oxidation and thermogenesis and thereby confirm findings in cell culture systems and animal models of obesity. There is still a need for well-designed and controlled clinical studies to validate the existing and encouraging human studies.
From Wolfram and others in review in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research (Antiobesity effects of green tea: From bedside to bench. Mol Nutr Food Res, 2006;50(2):176-187).
Have a nice cuppa!
Phil
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Wally’s Yarns
Three little stories this month
This one has an Easter theme.
I was reading the paper in the week when a story caught my eye. It gave the name of a person and it came to mind that I was at school with a lad with the same name, so I read on.
The lad I was at school with was not the sharpest knife in the box, infact he had lots of problems. His exam results made mine look very good. This lad had troubles with reading, spelling and writing, he even had trouble writing his own name, so I began to think it may be the same person. The reason behind the story was that this person had taken Mothers Pride to court, and he was suing them for forging his signature on the top of Hot Cross Buns.
An embarrassing problem
A man went into the pub and ordered three of the best single malt whiskies. The barman lined them up, and the man took a sip of the fist one and said,
“Barman that is one of the smoothest, tastiest whiskies I have ever had the pleasure to taste” and with that he downed the rest in one go.
The barman said “It’s one of my favourites as well; it comes from one of the Hebridean Islands and is 25 years old, aged in oak barrels”
The man picked up the second glass and took a mouthful and extolled to the barman its finer qualities of smoothness, roundness and sheer pleasure to taste, as it passed over his tongue.
To which the barman could only agree.
As he finished the second he picked up the third. This one he gulped in one, when he had finished he said to the barman, “I couldn’t resist doing that with the last one, it felt good all the way down, but maybe I shouldn’t have done that, not with what I’ve got”
“Why, what have you got?” asked the barman.
“Just 16p in my pocket” said the man.
And a bad luck story
A man got called home from work one day as his father had just died. As he was walking home he saw one of his mates who made a comment about being home from work early.
He told his mate that his father had just past away and he was on his way home to get changed before going to his mother’s house to see if she needed anything.
“I’m sorry to hear that, that’s a bit of bad luck, the old fella always looked fit and well”, his mate replied.
“Don’t talk to me about bad luck”, said the man in a pitiful voice, “My family seem to of had nothing but bad luck lately, I don’t know how much more we can stand. Just to illustrate a point, I’ve been called home because my father’s died and I’ve just met my brother down the road, and he’s telling me, he’s just been called home from work, because his father has died as well, that’s what I call bad luck”.
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