A few weeks ago I put something in a bin, turned, took a step and my head hit something very hard. I screamed in pain, had a sensation of falling backwards, then the next thing I knew I was lying on my back looking up at someone. They asked "Are you okay?". It was a question I did not know the answer to. I took a few seconds to check I was not bleeding, & my limbs were working. I then slowly got up and introduced myself. I did this to check I still knew my name, which I did. I was remarkably uninjured apart from a bruise on my head & a slight headache. I then saw I had walked into the underside of an overhead concrete set of stairs. I suspect I was a victim of the forced perspective illusion: I had seen the sloping underside of the stairs as a flat ceiling overhead, receding into the distance.
Feeling not too bad I went to lunch, negotiated a parking space and new five year contract. However, several hours later I started to feel unwell. I found I had difficulty turning my head to the side & felt slightly dizzy. This got worse and as it was late at night I went to the Inner North (Dickson) Walk-in Centre. The wait was not too long, but I found myself getting worse. Show into a consulting room I explained what had happened. It was a little difficult to explain I had hit my head on a concrete stairwell, then fallen over. Asked if I was unconscious I couldn't say (eventually I worked out I must have been for ten seconds).
Things got interesting when the nurse took my blood pressure. They looked worried, then went out and got a much bigger machine, took another reading and looked even more worried. At this point ey suggested I needed to go to hospital & with my concurrence called an ambulance (at this point I was in a slightly dissociated state & would have agreed to anything). I was surprised they picked up a phone, dialled Triple-0 and relayed my details by voice. I had assumed they would click a red button on their screen & have my details (which were already entered in the ACT Health computer) sent electronically to the ACT Ambulance Service. Later the ambulance staff relayed my details by radio to the hospital, despite, again, this being part of the same health system.
After a few minutes ,two ambulance personnel turned up and put me on a trolley. Unfortunately there is no curb cut directly outside the the Inner North (Dickson) Walk-in Centre and nowhere to park an ambulance. These are odd omissions for a medical facility. As a result I had to be wheeled along the footpath away from the ambulance, then after a 360 degree turn on the road, back to the ambulance. This was with traffic passing on the road. Some of the paperwork started blowing away and I could see the person pushing my trolley weighing up if they could level me long enough to secure it. We were on a downward slope towards a ramp into an underground carpark, so I had visions of careering down the street like a scene from Mr Bean. Fortunately the officer decided to keep hold of me and collect the paperwork later.
The ride to North Canberra Hospital was surprisingly uncomfortable. This was my second ride in an ambulance (I don't remember much of the first one). I could feel every bump and the corners felt like the ambulance was spinning around (no doubt due to my condition). We arrived at hospital and I was quickly wheeled in and transferred to a bed.
A succession of people asked me what medication I was taking. Unfortunately in my confused state I could not remember. I vaguely knew it was in an app on my phone but I couldn't remember which app (there are three different government systems I have records in). I have extreme difficulty trying to access MyGov, as it requires multi-factor authentication. It turns out the records I needed were in My Health Record, which only needed a thumb scan, but I lacked the presence of mind at the time. What is surprising is that staff at a government hospital don't have access to digital medical records held on government systems, in an emergency.
I was hooked up to beeping machines and had blood taken. Some time later I had a CAT scan. Every hour or so I was asked what were the three things I was asked to remember (I can still remember them). For the first few hours I was in the emergency ward and noticed that no one ever walked slowly. Everyone was walking very briskly, except for those pushing COWs (Computers of Wheels), where they were typing on screen, while pushing the equipment from patient to patient.
My CAT scan came back okay & I was moved to a quieter ward. Unfortunately the gadgets attached to the patients still kept beeping all night. Around dawn I was asked to remember the three things for the final time and discharged. I walked down the hill from the hospital and, with a feeling of weary elation, got on a bus to go home.
Despite the above quibbles, I would like to thank the staff of the Inner North (Dickson) Walk-in Centre, ACT Ambulance Service and North Canberra Hospital for the excellent care I received.
