999 Emergency

 

‘Hello!’ Pip bellowed as she went through the front door slamming it behind her.

‘Hello?’ she repeated but got no response. She knew someone was in the house because she could hear the water running in the bathroom. She had so many books in her bag that when she threw it under the telephone table it made an audible thud as she ran upstairs.

‘Hello’ she shouted outside the bathroom. She heard what sounded like water hitting the floor tiles.

‘Hello?’ She repeated, her anxiety rising. ‘Sinead?’

‘Sinead are you ok?’ She asked again, wrapping on the door. Pip was really starting to get worried.

She tried the door but was only able to open it a crack. It felt as though there was something stopping her from opening it further. She saw red water on the black and white tiles.

‘Sinead!’ She screamed as she pushed the door with all her might.

Sinead, Pips older sister, had packed her clothes and towels against the bottom of the door so there would be no flooding from under it.  When Pip opened it enough to look in she found Sinead in the bath, the water still flowing, with one arm over the side covered in blood. It was a good job there was no lock on the door. Michael, Pips older brother, insisted on that for precisely that reason. She squeezed through the gap and ran over to turn off the taps to stop the water flowing. She opened the stopper to let some of the water out.

Pip quickly took off her coat and threw it into the sink and struggled to drag her sister out of the bath; all twenty stone of her. She lay her down on the water logged bathroom floor.

 

When Pip was twelve and was starting secondary school they all had to do a mandatory first aid course; Pip never in her wildest dreams imagined she would have needed to use it, especially on her own sister.

‘What did you do? What did you do?’ she repeated over and over to herself as she shook her sister to try to make her regain consciousness. Sinead had slashed both of her wrists with an orange box cutter that lay on the floor next to the bath. There was about twelve empty bottles of several different types of medications on the tiles. In the first aid course Pip was taught to apply pressure to stop bleeding so she wrapped Sinead’s wrists tightly in towels and went to her coat pocket in the sink to ring 999 for an ambulance.

When she got through she heard ‘999 emergency, hello my name is Carmel, what’s your emergency.’

‘My sister,’ Pip said in a panic, ‘my sister tried to commit suicide!’

The first thing Carmel asked was ‘Is she breathing?’

‘What do you mean is she breathing?’ Pip panicked. ‘How am I supposed to know that?’

‘Put your hand on her chest’ Carmel instructed.

‘Hang on, I’ll check!’ she put the phone on speaker and placed it on the vanity unit before putting her hand on Sinead’s chest and felt it rise and fall which established that yes she was still breathing. She let out an audible sigh of relief.

‘Ok, great.’ Carmel sighed with Pip.

‘What is your name love?’ she asked.

‘Pip’ she replied ‘my name is Pip’

‘Ok Pip, you’re doing great! Now can you tell me your sister’s name please?’ Carmel asked trying to get as much information as she could.

‘Sinead‘ Pip said between sobs.

‘Ok love. Sinead what?’ Carmel was feeding all this information to the incoming paramedics.

‘Sinead Carter.’ Pip said with a break in her voice.

‘Right. Pip, what makes you think Sinead has attempted suicide?’ Enquired Carmel.

‘There are pill bottles everywhere and she has slashed her wrists’ Pip was shaking all over, the hairs on her arms were standing up and she was as pale as paper from the shock.

‘Ok Pip.’ Carmel started ‘you have to calm down ok. Now how long have the drugs been in your sisters system and how much blood has she lost?’

‘There’s blood everywhere and I don’t know about the tablets‘ Pip said before she removed the wedge from under the door to get more towels to put onto the cuts on Sinead’s wrists.

‘She’s after bleeding through a towel already, on each arm’ Pip offered.

‘Ok’ Carmel paused and thought for a minute. ‘Pip, what I’m going to ask you to do now may sound a little unorthodox but you’re going to have to trust me.’

‘Ok’ replied Pip cautiously.

‘You need to make Sinead vomit up some of the tablets if possible.’ Carmel said to Pip’s disgust. Pip didn’t do vomit.

‘What?’ She asked in disbelief.

‘Trust me it’s very important’ Carmel encouraged.

‘How?’ Pip asked almost vomiting at the thought.

‘You’re going to have to put your fingers down her throat. ‘Carmel said sounding like it wasn’t the first time she’d said that today.

‘What?’ Pip asked in disbelief ‘Is there any other way?’

‘I’m sorry but it’s your sisters best bet.’ Carmel was very encouraging. ‘Put her onto her side and put your fingers down her throat.’

‘Ok’ Pip really wanted to save her sisters life and knew if she didn’t she would never forgive herself, so she shoved her onto her left side and put her fingers down Sinead’s throat. At first Sinead only retched.

Carmel heard this. ‘You need to shove them down as far as they’ll go!’ she instructed.

True enough on the second attempt Sinead vomited and got a good few of the tablets out.

‘Ok Pip, you’re doing great… Pip? Pip are you there?’ Carmel enquired.

‘Sorry, I vomited’ Pip admitted, ‘on my sister,’ she added. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and focused all her attention onto Carmel.

‘Ok, that’s completely ok, but more importantly did Sinead?’ Carmel was a bit concerned.

‘Yeah, a lot of pills came up’ Pip said with disgust wiping more excess vomit off her face with her left shoulder and wiped her hand in her red tartan school skirt.

‘Now check if she’s still breathing!’ Carmel said holding her breath.

Pip once again put her hand on her sister’s chest and once again she felt it rise and fall. She smiled.

‘She’s breathing’ Pip sighed with relief.

‘Oh thank god’ Pip heard from the other end of the phone as Carmel mirrored her sigh.

The doorbell rang. ‘I think the paramedics are here!’ Pip said to Carmel.

‘Ok. Put towels behind Sinead’s back to keep her on her side and answer the door!’ Carmel instructed.

‘What?’ Pip was confused.

‘Put a rolled up towel behind her to make sure she doesn’t go onto her back in case she vomits again.’ Carmel explained.

‘Ok I’ve done that, what now?’ Pip asked.

‘Now just answer the door’ Carmel sighed with relief, happy to have done as much as she could.

‘Did someone call for an ambulance?’ a paramedic said through the letterbox.

‘Are you sure I can leave her?’ Pip questioned Carmel.

‘Hello. Did someone call for an ambulance?’ Was asked again.

‘She will be fine!’ Carmel reassured Pip.

Pip got up with a start. ‘Coming!’ she shouted as she ran down the stairs almost missing the last few steps.

 

When she opened the door, two burly men in white shirts and green trousers, introducing themselves as paramedics walked into the house.

‘My sister’ Pip said petrified. She was as pale as paper.

‘Where is she?’ they asked.

‘Bathroom’ Pip said pointing up the stairs before vomiting again, this time more out of worry.

The paramedics pushed by her and made their way to the bathroom. Pip was at the bottom of the stairs in the hall covered in blood and vomit. She heard them do their thing.

‘Hello, Hello, hello’ she heard coming from her hand. She forgot that she picked up the phone before she went downstairs and was still holding it.

‘Yes’ she answered in shock.

‘Is the ambulance crew there?’ asked Carmel concerned.

‘Yes’ Pip said in disbelief.

‘You are in good hands now. Ok?’ she reassured Pip.

‘Ok. Thanks!’ Pip said numbly and hung up. She put her back to the wall and her body slowly slid down until she was on her honkers. The front door burst open; it was the fire brigade.

‘There’s no fire here’ Pip tried to explain.

‘We’re here love to help the paramedics’ they clarified their presence.

‘Oh ok. She’s upstairs to the right.’ Pip was in disbelief that there were all of these strange men in uniform suddenly in the house making it feel small.

Sinead was a big girl and the paramedics asked for the fire brigade to help them bring her down the stairs.

 

‘Is she going to be ok?’ Pip asked sheepishly as four of them brought her out to the ambulance.

‘You just may have saved her life!’ one of the paramedics reassured her. ‘Do you know if she is on any medication love?’ he asked.

‘Hhmmm’ Pip pondered.

‘It would help greatly if we knew what ones she was on!’ he explained, he looked serious.

‘Hhmmm….ok’ Pip thought hard and then remembered that Sinead always kept a list of her meds in her hand bag.  She ran up the stairs, burst into Sinead’s bedroom and saw her handbag on her dressing table. Upon searching it, sure enough the list was there; ‘Oh thank god’ she muttered to herself. She was putting Sinead’s bag back onto the table when a yellow post it took her attention. She grabbed it and ran down the stairs. The paramedics and fire brigade had put Sinead into the back of the ambulance. Pip gave the piece of paper with the list of medications to the man who asked for it.

‘Thank you love!’ he accepted graciously. ‘Wow’ he whistled, ‘she is on a lot of medication!’

‘I know’ sighed Pip.

‘There’s a list of next of kin written here’ he said looking at the piece of paper Pip gave him. ‘Will you ring them for me and tell them what is going on love?’

‘Yeah’ came out with Pip’s breath. Cathy and Michael, Pips mother and brother, entered her thoughts and she just said ‘shit’ under her breath. Sharon and Jeffrey from next door came running into the driveway. Sharon immediately went to the ambulance and Jeffrey to Pip.

‘You poor thing!’ Jeffrey exclaimed as he enveloped her in a hug.

‘Right so’ the paramedic patted her on the shoulder almost slipping on Pip’s vomit as he left. ‘We’ll do the best we can but your sister is in critical condition! Are you sure you can inform the next of kin?’ he repeated and looked at his shoe with disgust.

‘Sorry’ Pip apologized, her stomach empty.

‘All part of the job love, all part of the job’ he said before he winked at her and left.

‘Yeah’ Pip whispered to herself in disbelief.

Sharon came running in as the ambulance departed lights and sirens flashing as they went. She wrapped her arms around both Pip and Jeffrey.

‘I heard you did great!’ she said as they were all huddled together.

‘Good thinking on the towels to slow the bleeding!’ Sharon said as she suppressed her own tears. She wanted to try to be strong for Pip's sake.

‘I’ sob ‘don’t’ sob ‘want’ sob ‘her’ sob ‘to’ sob ‘die’ Pip cried.

‘Well you couldn’t have done anymore than you did love,’ Sharon said in a comforting tone and squeezed them tight as she said it. They were huddled like penguins. When the sobbing ran its course, Sharon was very aware that Cathy, Pips mother didn’t know about the situation. She knew she worked until eight on a Wednesday and didn’t want her to come home to the ungodly mess that used to be her house. There was blood and vomit all over the bathroom and the entrance along with mucky boot prints everywhere from the paramedics and fire fighters.

‘Now love,’ she addressed Pip ‘do you want me to call your mom?’

‘Oh shit!’ Pip exclaimed ‘what time is it?’

‘It’s seven o’clock!’ Jeffrey answered.

‘Shit!’ Pip screamed frightening the other two ‘shit! Shit! Shit!’ she screamed with her eyes tight and her fists clenched.

‘It’s ok Pippy! It’s ok!’ Sharon said softly as she took her hands away from Jeffrey and solely hugged Pip. She tried to fight it at first but eventually she just sobbed her heart out on Sharon’s shoulder.

‘It’s not ok though’ Pip recoiled. ‘Stupid bitch is going to kill my mother!’ she screamed.

‘I’ll ring Cathy now!’ Sharon nodded to Jeffrey.

‘Will you?’ Pip said with great relief on her face.

‘Of course love! Jeffrey will you …..’ Sharon was nodding her head towards Pip again. She was trying to indicate that she wanted him to look after her.

‘Come on Pippy,’ he picked up the signal and put his arm around her shoulder. ‘We’ll go into the kitchen’

Sharon mouthed the words ‘Thank you!’

Jeffrey just winked.