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sometimes it's the smaller details that help
+ 1 million - not least having the time to talk to patients.
One of my fave memories from work was looking after an old guy who had been brought in after a massive PR bleed. I'll call him 'Jim'. After having been scoped & sorted, Jim was passed back to us in surgical admissions. He was too zonked for any conversation when I first met him, but whilst helping him to wash the next morning I couldn't help but notice extensive scars all over his legs & torso. Judging by his age I guessed what they might have resulted from, and casually asked if he'd ever been in the Forces. Yes, he had - having dropped into Europe as a 19 year old Para during the Normandy campaign. On day 2, one of his friends stood on a mine and was blown to pieces, leaving Jim alive but badly wounded. Over the course of the morning shift, I grabbed a chat with Jim whenever I had a spare moment. After being patched up, he'd returned in time for the endgame in Germany, and then went quietly back to his job as a dockworker.
At the end of the shift, as I waved goodbye, he said: "Thank you for talking to me about D-Day."
"No Sir, thank you!"
I've just been blogged about:
http://liveliketheboy.co.uk/2012/01/18/matt-antrobus-a-suitable-surface/
Kinda weird reading about onesself!
Top 50 Travel Websites of all Time - The Guardian, July 2011
Travel Tip of the Month - Independent, March 2011
Best of Travel on the Web - BBC, September 2011
Spark of Genius Start Up - Mashable, November 2011
plus a few other bits and pieces in the guardian and other travel blogs/websites.
not saved any lives (through work, anyway), but to have had such good press (esp top 50 travel websites of all time) within 18 months of launching feels great for me and my 4 colleagues.
i think our 1st paycheck from it will be a happy moment, though!
+1 about it sometimes being the little things. As a copper I've been in a position to be involved in some headline-making type incidents but one of the most impactive was more "trivial". Dealt with a vulnerable old man who'd been befriended and exploited by a drug using former burglar, who'd inveigled her way into his life as an informal carer. His family became suspicious and confronted him but hid pride meant he couldn't see what was happening, and he cut off communication with his son.
So one day we are called by a local bank branch. He is trying to withdraw the last of his life savings, and there isn't much left. We investigate, catch her, get her through the courts and into prison and in the papers*, but the real reward was standing in a bank lobby seeing the tearful reconciliation between a father and son. Pretty sure it was dusty and I got something in my eye....
Pilgrim, as others have said its often the smaller things that have a profound impact on both you and the subject.
I dont seem to be able to add tags, but Thread Of The Year seems appropriate. None of it willy waving, all of if affirming.
I forgot that this may sum up what I do (ignore the nonce in the bunnet a couple of minutes in, he knows nothing 😉 )
This has got to be the thread of the year so far, what a talented lot you are, i feel so insignificant in your prescence.
Another one who is humbled by the life savers. I'm just proud of the folks who've gone on to build something big after being seen giving one of the presentations I've coached them for.
It's easy to do the 'life saving' thing if your job is 'life saving', it's not a big ask, it's not out of the ordinary. The real heroes are those who do stuff that no one tells them to, the really good guys are those people who do the right thing because it's the right thing to do.
You, the people who do these things, the people who take a chance, the people who see good in others, the people who think 'I've got to do something' even when they aren't sure what to do, the people who actually care, you're the heroes.
Ahem...
Some great stuff here, for people to rightly be proud of.
Matt - I went to Ardeonaig at primary school as a kid and loved it. Regularly drive past on my way from Kenmore to Killin and it brings back good memories.
You local then?
No, based in Fife at the moment but I get about 😆