It’s been harrowing and rewarding, gruelling, frustrating yet often fulfilling.
Ian Firth has been an ambulanceman in Huddersfield for 36 years and now tells all in a new book called From A White Rose And A Butterfly.
Now 59, he is married to Wendy, has two boys Adrian and Ben and has talked frankly about his career - and over that time he estimates he has cared for more than 35,000 people.
Ian, an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician, says: “There have been some horrendous times involving the deaths of young children and I’ve written a whole section on bringing new life into this world, including one delivery under the Christmas tree outside the Junction Pub at Marsh. What could be more rewarding than that?
“But one of the most memorable incidents that I have attended to I was actually not on duty. It was in 1993, my eldest son was on his way to school when an accident happened. He ran back home to get me out of bed. I had been working a night shift.
“There was an articulated lorry that had careered into some road workings on Manchester Road. Under the lorry was a head and I was looking at the patient who was conscious, I had to look underneath to see where the rest of him was. There were two men. Both were badly injured and there was a large gas mains under pressure beneath the truck. The lorry was teetering on the edge of the large hole that the men had dug. Each movement threatened to crush one of the two men. I had to get passersby to stop cars and ask for their car jacks to try and steady the large rocking tractor unit.
“We eventually had several positioned around to help stop the movement before all the emergency services arrived on scene and we all worked together to rescue the two men.
“Eventually both men went on to make a reasonable recovery. I still occasionally see the two lads involved.”
The story was featured on the BBC TV Programme 999 featuring Michael Buerk. Ian received a Chief Officers Commendation and a bravery award.
Ian adds: “I have been so privileged - yes, I do feel privileged to be invited into people’s lives, to witness all kinds of tragedy and happiness. Sometimes right down to the very depths of deepest despair.
“Every day has been totally different. As a member of the ambulance service you have no idea from one minute to the next where you will be going or what you will be going to see.
“I have also met some wonderful people and I have met some awful, nasty people. I have at times been physically assaulted, threatened and verbally abused. Thankfully, not very often.”
Ian added: “If I can see a reason for something happening, I can accept it and deal with it. If there isn’t a reason, that hurts and badly.
“In the early 1980s Kirklees had one of highest concentrations of cot deaths in the country. At the moment, West Yorkshire is near the top of that list yet again.
“I have no idea why. In October 1984 one of my colleagues and I had to deal with five cot deaths in just four days! It was at the time when my first born son was only three months old.
“That was the hardest thing to come to terms with in my life. It was beyond words.
“All of the babies had died of an unknown and unexplained problem and all of them at around three to four months of age. It was put down to ‘cot death’ or, as it now known, ‘sudden infant death syndrome’ (SIDS). Not long after that event we as a station at Huddersfield raised a lot of money for the SIDS charity with our open day.
“The heartaches have been many and the rewards have been but few. But to see patients arrive at hospital who might not have done so without my own and my colleagues’ intervention is reward itself.”
Some incidents have had their lighter side.
Ian says: “I remember attending to one 999 call involving a road traffic collision on the M62 near to Huddersfield. In the early days our hi-vis jacket was nothing more than a zip up vest to fasten over our black all weather coats. As we pulled up at the Incident my colleague had already put his vest on. I was driving so was only putting it on as I alighted from the ambulance. The duty police officer was explaining the incident to me but there was no sign of my colleague.
“Apart from the roar of the traffic thundering down the still busy motorway, occasionally we could hear a very hoarse rasping cry for help.
“That was my colleague, he had zipped his vest up and over his seatbelt. As he had got out of the ambulance, he was hanging from his belt. His feet were still in the footwell and his body was dangling bizarrely out of the ambulance as he was choking on the vest being drawn tightly across his neck - he wasn’t in any position to help himself.
“As the police officer and myself rescued him from his predicament we were crying our eyes out at the same time.”
The book is called From A White Rose And A Butterfly because it is dedicated to Ian’s parents.
He said: “The book is dedicated to Brian, my father, a true and proud, hardworking Yorkshireman. He was a white rose through and through, who I miss immensely. Also to Sylvia, my mother. Very much loved, missed and remembered with the symbol of a butterfly, a creature that has seemed to be around all the family since my mum passed away. A symbol that appropriately has been adopted by over a 100 hospitals in Britain, who are helping patients as mum was, and their families suffering with Alzheimer’s.”
The ISBN number is 978-1-911596-65-3 and costs £12.99.
It is available from Ian’s publisher Spiderwize.com and on Amazon and Waterstones websites.
