Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Ambulance- Daily Object Writing – Oct 26

St Kilda Road – the expressway for speeding ambulances and slug like trams to funnel their way to The Alfred Hospital. Sirens pulse in red and blue synchronicity with the lights and the pulse increases at intersections. Motors gun at high speed to get to emergency at the earliest convenience. The air ambulance sometimes passes by my house. When ever I hear its blades massacring the air a thought rises that some other poor bastard must be in a lot of trouble. There’s a landing pad set up over Commercial road that leads straight into the trauma section and the ICU – Intensive care. How could you work there day after day I wonder?

Inside the ambulance as it harries down St Kilda road, parcels of equipment monitor and assist the victim, ECG monitors display the health of the heart, blood pressure monitors tick over with the pulsing blood- does it pulse in time with the siren now? The patient tastes the inside of a clear plastic mask, panic and fear in his eyes. The bed rattles as the ambulance crosses over tram tracks on its last flurry up to the hospital. They’ve radioded ahead so things are in readiness but the patient starts to fade, vital signs plunge. The ambulance officer pinches him, “can you hear me mate, can you hear me”, he reaches for the shock paddles as the heart monitor flat lines into a wheeeeeing sound….