UK Paramedic Paged to Answer His Own Emergency Call

If paramedic Roger Flux hadn't felt so ill after dialling 999 he would have laughed.

There he was, waiting for an ambulance as he suffered what felt very much like a heart attack, when his emergency pager went off.

The bleep came from the control room, ordering him to attend to a man crippled with chest pains.

The problem was that the man in pain was Roger - and he had been called out to administer help to himself.

Minutes earlier he had felt his chest tighten, followed by stabbing pains through his body, so his wife June phoned the emergency services.

Roger, 66, said last night: "I was waiting for the ambulance to arrive and my pager went off, telling me there was a man with a serious chest complaint - and it was me.

"I was in a lot of pain, but I still saw the funny side. I think you have to in those sort of situations.

"It felt quite ironic, waiting for the ambulance to arrive and my own pager was going off. I wasn't really in a position to phone them back and say I couldn't attend the call.

"But the ambulance turned up within a couple of minutes after I got the message, which just goes to show how efficient the service is. I'd have had trouble getting to the emergency as quick as they managed it."

Roger, a grandfather of three and father of two from Southampton, works as a community responder for South Central Ambulance Trust.

He gets called out at the same time as the ambulance service to attend calls within a five-mile radius of his house.

He was taken to Southampton General Hospital where he spent 14 hours in the cardiac unit before doctors sent him home after being unable to find what caused the pains.

Roger, a retired engineer, said: "I knew something was wrong straight away, but I wasn't sure what was going on. The doctors at the hospital confirmed that I didn't have a heart attack, though they're not sure what exactly was wrong with me.

"It could have been a virus or something similar that was causing the stabbing pains. Whatever it was, it hurt a lot and was very worrying at the time, but I can see the funny side of the situation.

"At least I knew I was in good hands with the ambulance men who turned up, because I work with them all the time anyway.

"And I can see how the system works from my patients' point of view."

South Central Ambulance Trust spokesman Jim Hunt said: "This incident highlights the need for patients who are suffering from chest pain to contact us urgently.

"Thankfully, Roger did not suffer any serious complaint and he will be able to continue this vital role in the community.

"It must have been a worry for him when his own pager went off, but it did not take the ambulance long to get to him and get him to hospital."

Community responders work within their own local areas and are often the first people on the scene when the emergency services are called.

They use their own transport - in Roger's case a Ducati motorcycle - to get to emergencies and can choose when they are on or off call depending on the hours they want to work.

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