skenasis

So, I had reenactment tonight. Everything was going peachy, aside from a too-high hit with a spear that means I'll have a lovely bruise on my ribcage tomorrow. So anyway. It's getting towards ten o'clock, or 'go home time'. We were outside, at the moat amphitheatre. I notice that a few people are over at the hand railing, staring out over the moat. I wander over and ask what everyone's looking at. Got a few vague answers with no real response. So, after a few minutes of staring at the blow-up pool sitting at the edge of the moat (o_O), a guy runs over and asks if anyone knows first aid. Me and two other guys ran along 'till we got to the bridge, crossed over, and doubled back to see what was up. Girl had tripped over some nigh-invisible leaned over fencing and hit the pavement hard, face-first. Her leg was too sore for her to be moved. She rang her dad and gave him directions. It sounded like he had no idea where to go, so me and another guy (a third one - he'd joined us a bit after we got there) offered to go to the gatehouse to wait for him and guide him when he got there.

So, after waiting around at the gatehouse for a while, it was determined that an ambulance had been called. We thus decided to wait for the ambulance to be able to guide it.

Ten minutes passes, no ambulance. The conversation between me, the guy, and two gate guards continues. The talk goes from uni courses to piercings (and no, I wasn't the one that brought up the topic. One of the gate guards kept telling me how awesome my snakebites look).

Fifteen minutes, still no ambulance. Conversation turns to reenactment and all it curtails, followed by a detailed inspection of my gambeson. I was still wearing it because I was more worried about guiding an ambulance than how fashionable I looked. The conversation turns to concrete. Yes, concrete.

Twenty minutes and still no ambulance. We finally find out that 'none are available and they'll get back to us'. It's past ten thirty, so I figure that by now I have to head home. The other guy could lead the ambulance there anyway, so my presence wasn't necessary.

Get back to the amphitheatre to find out that most people are apparently on the other side, with the girl. Have a conversation with two of the guys who were still on the amphitheatre guys, discussing how disgusting it was that it's taking so damned long to figure out that an ambulance isn't available yet. We hear the girl screaming in pain as they move her. They were putting her in her dad's car so she could be driven to a hospital.

Getting to quarter to, I finally have all my gear packed up and in the boot. I ring my mum, let her know what's going on.

I'm just about to leave, and the guy who was waiting with me at the gatehouse shows up. Turns out that if they wanted an ambulance, they would've had to have waited for two hours. A girl is crying in pain, screaming when they try to move her, going into shock, and they have to wait two hours. Nice. Real nice. There are not one, not two, but three hospitals in the area, and they have to wait two hours for an ambulance?

So, I start driving home. Heading along the Ring Road, and what do I see going in the opposite direction? What else but an ambulance. Reeeeeal nice.

So yeah. That wasn't cool. The twenty minute wait was long enough for me and the other guy. I really don't want to think about how long it must have seemed for that poor girl. That's ignoring how long it would have taken to get her into a car, driven her to hospital, moved her again and had her checked out. Makes me wanna just curl up in bed with my kitty cats and sleep the morning away. In fact, I'm gonna go do that right now.