The Man and his Fishing Knife

We were on our way to Wathamstow reservoirs. We had been asked to approach silently and not to use visual warnings. Our brief was to find a suitable location and await further instructions. A man known to the police had decided to climb to the top of an electricity pylon which was in the grounds of the reservoirs. No one was sure why or what his intentions were.

It was a dull and grey morning, there was a fine drizzle in the air. As we were travelling along Forest road approaching Blackhorse station, we could see the man at the top of the pylon in the distance. "Must be crazy" I said to my mate, "fancy messing around on an electricity pylon especially in the wet". I had no sooner said that when the dot on the horizon had disappeared. "Oh Shit!" I exclaimed "he's gone". Within moments the radio burst into life requesting that we make all haste to the location.

As we pulled up we could see the man lying on his back on grass at the base of the Pylon. A second man was on his knees leaning over him. We hurried over to the patient and were surprised to see the second man trying to force a small fishing knife through the patients temple. He was bashing it in a very uncontrolled way. This was clearly wrong and I asked the man who appeared to be of Asian origin and who spoke with broken english to stop.

The patient was in Cardiac Arrest due to his trauma which we know has an almost Zero chance of survival, however this was in pre Paramedic days before we had monitor/defibrillators and other sophisticated equipment. So we were obliged to attempt to resuscitate the patient and rapidly remove him to hospital. It was hard work and needless to say he did not survive and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital!

Now you may be asking yourself why was the second man trying to force a blunt knife through the patients skull? Well he said he was a doctor and he wanted to relieve the pressure inside the patients skull as he believed he had a brain injury! It is recognised that relieving intracranial pressure in a seriously head injured patient can be beneficial, however it is usually a controlled surgical procedure using surgical equipment. I imagine if this person had been successful he would have smashed the patients skull and driven his knife and bone into the patients brain!

The patient had no doubt suffered multi-system trauma with injuries incompatible with life, something the doctor seemingly failed to appreciate.

Was he really a Doctor? I'll never know!