Death on the Underground (1980's Style)

We were off. I had the distinct feeling we were in for another busy day.

We had been dispatched to a call given as male collapsed in Walthamstow Underground station. It was rush hour and the roads were busy. The usual frantic crawl into London.

I knew that this call could present us with some problems, as the station was difficult to access. We arrived in Selbourne road and loaded ourselves with everything  we thought we would need, as returning to the vehicle was not going to be an option. The station was quite deep underground.

This meant response bag, defibrillator, suction, carry chair, blanket etc. I felt more like a removal man than an ambulanceman. For those wondering, I was not yet a Paramedic but had extended skills in airway management and vascular access and was able to use a defibrillator in Cardiac Arrest. This in london was known as Hotel trained. These additional skills would have been useful in this case, had the opportunity presented itself.

We quickly passed through the ticket barrier and platform of the British Rail station and made our way to the two flights of stairs that descended to the moving escalator that would take us into the depths of the Underground station. On arriving at the bottom of the moving stairway we began to cross the hall between the platforms, all the while looking for someone in distress. We were greeted by a member of London Transport staff. I had noted that there were no trains at either of the two platforms and was beginning to wonder where our patient was.

I was now a little bemused, as the member of staff appeared unconcerned and gave no indication that there was a problem. You will appreciate we had driven through rush hour traffic under emergency conditions and had just hiked a considerable distance, carrying a lot of equipment, the adrenaline was flowing and we were ready for action. We explained why we were there, her response was to ask us to follow her to a small hidden away office. On entering the office we were introduced to the station inspector but had to wait as he seemed busy on the telephone.

We stood and waited with anticipation and probably looked more than a little bemused. This man eventually finished his conversation and then calmly began to tell us that someone had collapsed on one of his trains. The nature and severity of the problem was still unclear and I was thinking where is the train and more importantly the patient.

Eventually all was revealed. It was like pulling teeth!

The patient an adult male had been travelling on a crowded London bound, rush hour train. You can picture the scene, everyone busy minding their own business, hiding behind their newspapers. Someone eventually realised that he was not sleeping but was unresponsive, presumably a member of the travelling public. When the train pulled into Walthamstow station, the station staff were alerted and it would seem that the actions taken were as follows:

• Quickly evacuate the train
• Shunt said train into inaccessible underground siding

I will leave you to form your own conclusions as to why this was deemed necessary. Oh! did I mention, the poor man had been left, still sitting in his seat.

So we had to wait!

The train was eventually recalled but only after another train had passed through the station. It slowly returned, empty with the exception of the patient. Quite spooky really.
A quick dash up and down the platform and we found our man still sitting in the seat in which he had collapsed. Unfortunately he was quite Dead!

Equally unfortunate was the fact that in those days we did not have the authority to recognise Death as we do now so had to initiate and continue resuscitation. All this, while getting him and all of our equipment back to the surface and our waiting ambulance.

Needless to say that was me knackered for the rest of the shift!