Story_023e - Douglas Victor Brown Life Story

Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project

Douglas Victor Brown's Life Story

Further Memories of the Brighton Ambulance Service
Being a member of the ambulance service enabled you to go into many places that the general public would not normally go and to see and do many unusual things. Examples are given here of some of the things that I got involved with when on duty.
Going behind the counter and in the vault of a bank.
I have been inside convents, had tea and cakes with the sisters. Used the toilet and left the seat up on purpose!
Been inside Lewes prison, in many police station cells, made statements and had my finger prints taken many times.
I was very privileged to be shown the black museum in the old Wellington Road Police Station.
Many times I was called as witness in a Coroners Court, Magistrates Court and Lewes Crown Court.
Gone onto the stage of the Dome and the old Hippodrome, also up in the wings and in one of the dressing rooms and I have met one or two stars. Once I had to crawl under a bus in a busy main road.
Gone down into road work trenches, in pub cellars and kitchens in some very unclean restaurants.
Going inside the locked doors of a mental hospital and inside a padded cell.
I have been in many massage parlours, strip clubs and brothels dealing with undressed young (and not so young) ladies who had been attacked and men who had got over excited or had been beaten by the minders having refused to pay for the goodies.
Once I was shown the secret passages behind the oak panels in a beautiful county house. One that was never open to the public.
I have exceeded the speed limit, gone through red lights, parked on double yellow lines and on the approach to pedestrian crossings, driven on the pavement and blocked many roads with my vehicle, and all within the law.
I was sent to a grave yard to look for a body. Yes we did think that someone was trying to extract the urine as they say. But we did find a body that was not yet under the ground.
I have entered many ladies toilets, in one I had to climb over the partition wall from the next cubicle as the patient had collapsed behind the door.
I have had to remove a naked lady from a bath.
On one occasion I had to drive through town and all the way from Brighton to a London hospital at high speed with police escort. That was nerve racking.
On many occasions have had to cut the cloths off patients so as to get at wounds. This really upset some young ladies when we had to cut their blouse or tights.
I had to break into a room with the police due to a smell of gas, and then had to jump onto a guy who was just about to light a cigarette.
Attended at Roedean College to treat and remove young ladies to hospital. There would always be a female minder/escort from the college with you at all times. The girls were the daughters of very rich people and politicians.
Have attended at the R.S.C.H. and watched many operations including, hip replacement, abdominal investigation, retention and very lucky to see a caesarean birth. I also had to go into the maternity unit to see a normal birth and had to deal with one or two in the back of the ambulance. At the other end of the scale I did see part of a post-mortem, not very nice.
Get caught exceeding the speed limit in your own car and get away with it when the police notice your uniform.
The day after my heart operation I was told that I would soon be having a bath. A short time later this very attractive young coloured nurse came to me and said. “We are going for a bath”. I thought that’s kinky and all on the national health, too.
She took me by the hand to the bathroom, undressed me and helped me into the bath. She then started to wash me all over. What a shock, it was hard to hide my embarrassment.
We had a call to the Hippodrome Bingo hall in Middle Street. A man was having a heart attack during the bingo session. We were working on him trying to get the heart restarted. The bingo caller did not stop and we had people complaining that they could not hear the numbers as we were making a noise. Hard to believe but true.
One evening I had to take an old lady from casualty to her home in Wadhurst, way out in the sticks. The only address given to me was Rose Cottage, Wadhurst. I asked her if she could give me directions once we got to Wadhurst. She said “oh yes”. When we got to the Blackboys Inn she said “turn right here”. She then continued to give me directions, right, left, right again, look for the big oak tree etc. etc. We ended up back at the Blackboys Inn. After a while I did manage to find a local who was able to tell me where the cottage was hidden away. It was way down a little unmade track the poor old lady did not have a clue where or who she was.
One of the men on the station was a real practical joker. He would go into the mess room or kitchen with his hands over his face. He would pretend to sneeze, then take his hands away from his face and say “I’ve got a terrible cold”. He would have winkles hanging from both nostrils.
Another favourite of his was to walk into the mess room, hold up a blanket that had melted chocolate on it, and say, “look what my last patient did in the back of the ambulance”. This worked very well if a new member of staff was in the room.
On many occasions we received calls to go to restaurants. Nine times out of ten this would be to a person who had been choking on his or her food. This would sometimes result in vomiting. What we found amusing every time was that the surrounding tables would be empty and would have half-finished meals on them.
There was a very bad traffic accident at the bottom of St James Street. A double decker bus had swerved and gone into the front of a large tobacconists shop. The one stop shop was on the site. The lower part of the bus had gone well inside the shop. The top deck had been pushed well back by the concrete over hang above the windows. Two ambulances were sent, my three mates went on to the top and lower decks of the bus while I went to check the driver and anyone in the shop. I have never seen so much broken glass in my life. The windows, shelves, doors and even the counters were made of glass and this was now all on the floor, about six inches deep. By luck there had been no customers in the shop at the time and the assistant had been at the back of the shop and was only suffering from shock and minor cuts.
We had the driver and about six or seven persons injured, but luckily no one had been sitting in front on the top deck or we would have been dealing with bodies. The funny end to this story is that as I was helping the driver out of the bus. A guy came into the shop, walked over all the broken glass, went up to the only unbroken counter and said to the assistant, who remember was in severe shock, “twenty gold leaf and a box of matches please”. I could not believe it, that’s life I guess.
I had to take a very posh lady home from casualty to her home in Roedean Crescent. She had a full length plaster on her leg due to an accident. Roedean Crescent contains some of the most expansive houses in Brighton. This really was top of the range, absolutely gorgeous. We were greeted by the butler who then directed us to a massive bedroom overlooking the sea. Having made her comfortable she thanked us, and told the butler to see that the ambulance men were looked after. On our way out he handed us five pounds each and thanked us for taking good care of madam. Five pounds in those days was a very generous tip.
One evening I had a call to a bedsitter in the Montpelier road area. We found a woman on the floor; she was bare apart from a bra that was around her neck. The room was in a mess with drawers and cupboards open and items scattered on the floor.
On checking the patient we found that she was very cold and had been dead for some time. That was it, don’t touch anything and get the police to attend, it looked like a case of murder. The police arrived in force, later we had to make a statement and have our finger prints taken, as is normal in a case like that. Apart from the report in the papers next day. I have no idea how this turned out.
As part of my cardiac training I spent four weeks in the intensive care unit at the R.S.C.H. It was during this time that a new item of equipment arrived on the ward, this was to be tested and assessed by the staff. It was a large floor standing machine which when wired up to a patient could record loads of information like heart rate, breathing rate, blood gas levels, temperature etc.
As I did not have a lot to do at that particular time the two nurses who were going to do the testing asked me if I would act as the patient. Well why not, it meant a couple of hours sitting up on a comfortable bed, I was given a normal E.C.G. then wired up to the new equipment. At this time I will mention the fact that it is always very hot and stuffy in this ward, for that reason the nurses wear very little under their uniform gown, and I mean very little.
To adjust all the wires and leads on the machine and on to me the nurses had to kneel, bend over, lean forward etc. Needless to say, but I will anyway, Douglas was sitting up in bed really enjoying the view. When it was all set up and the tests had been carried out the nurses said that they did not think the equipment was working correctly as it showed my heart, breathing and temperature rates were all very high. Well surprise, surprise, I wonder why?
I could not help laughing and had to tell the girls that the equipment was working very well, they thought about that for a few seconds then the penny dropped and they fell about laughing as well. No one on the ward had any worries about things like that.
We received a call one evening to a house in Moulsecombe and found a woman on the floor in the passage, she had a black eye and other bruises. I asked her how she had got the injuries and before she could reply a man who had been standing at the back of the hall walked forward and said, “she fell down the stairs, do you want to make something of it”, now this guy was big and I mean big, over six feet tall and built like a brick outhouse. I then made a very good and very wise decision, O.K. So I guess she fell down the stairs. We took her in to casualty and then informed the police about the case. I don’t expect they would have done much about it as we had told them how big the man was.
Another time we received a call late one evening to a side road off of West Street. We found a woman in a shop doorway; she had two broken legs and was in great distress. We ask her how this had happened and she told us that a lorry had backed on to her. Some story, she was afraid, she was a prostitute and must have upset the wrong people who then took it out on her. We felt very sorry for her. There are some really nasty people about, she did not deserve that.
We hear all this talk about racial prejudice but it is not new. We attended a traffic accident in which a car had rolled several times, we removed a black man from the wreck. Among other injuries we suspected a possible back injury so made sure that we kept him flat.
When we arrived at casualty we found that a black doctor was on duty. We gave him all the details including the fact that we had kept him flat having suspected a spinal injury. Now whether he was from a different country, tribe, caste or what I don’t know, but as soon as he saw our patient he said to me. “What shit have you brought in here”. He then told the patient to sit up. So that he could have a look at him. We did not know what to say, but this must have been seen or heard by the sister or some other senior member of staff as we never saw that doctor again.
We went to a block of flats to pick up a mental patient, he was on a court order which meant he had to be taken to a mental unit by force if necessary. He was quite young and strong and it took a mental welfare officer, two police officers and my mate and I to get him into the lift. All the way down in the lift he was kicking, biting and trying to tear us apart.
When the lift doors opened on the ground floor we all fell out in a big heap. Two old ladies who were waiting for the lift said, “Oh don’t hurt that poor man”. Dont hurt him, some joke, we were the ones who were black and blue.
We were on night duty and had spent some time washing the ambulance, it was now very clean and shiny. We received a call to a fire in Eastern Road, when we arrived the building was well alight and the fire crew were busy so we parked nearby and sat back to enjoy the show. After a while we heard shouts from the firemen who came running out of the building. The building then collapsed in a big heap and sent out a choking cloud of dense grey dust. When the dust had cleared we found that luckily no persons had been injured. But the ambulance, having been still wet it attracted the dust, which stuck to it like mud. So back to base to start washing all over again.
One night while on night duty I had a bad headache, I had a word with the casualty sister who let me have a pack of pain killers. We had to go back to casualty about an hour later with another patient, for a joke I told the sister that my headache was now much better having taken all of the tablets she had given me. She nearly had a fit to think that I had taken what would have been an overdose. But she then saw that my mate and I were grinning. We had to make a hasty retreat to avoid the flying bedpans.
One evening I was duty officer for the area and I received a call to attend at a big fire in Newhaven. This was great, a nice little blue light run along the coast road in the staff car. When I got to the fire, which was a really big one, I received some funny looks having arrived with blue lights and two tones at a fire and party to deliberately burn down a building to make way for a new social club; it had been planned for weeks. But I did do very well out of it, I spent some time sitting in the car watching the fire and was given free hot dogs, cola, ice cream and a balloon.
Christmas was a good time on the service, a large number of gifts were always sent to the station, we had a mass of drinks of all types, cigarettes, cigars, biscuits, cakes, chocolates, mince pies, sausage rolls etc. These were all sent in by patients, doctors, nursing homes etc.
Tony Grieg was a member of amber shift, he was a Scot and he had a special recipe for whisky cake. Each Christmas he would make a cake and bring it in for the shift, what a cake, I tried it once, I do believe that one slice of that and you were over the limit for driving.
We attended a traffic accident in the town, I was the driver and Charlie Genin was my attendant. Charlie was checking the patient when a man pushed through the crowd and started to check the patient. Charlie who was always quick to react, and did not look said, “Who do you think you are a doctor”.
It was in fact Doctor Parker, the chief medical officer for Brighton and as such our ultimate boss. When we had taken our patient into hospital we were told to return to base immediately, if not sooner, Charlie by this time was not feeling much like a happy bunny. As we pulled into the Ambulance Station we saw the chief and his deputy waiting for us. The chief opened the ambulance door and said, “Which one of you was it?” I pointed at Charlie and said, “It was him”. The smelly stuff had really hit the fan.
Doctor Parker had been with friends at the scene of the accident and had been most embarrassed in front of them to have one of his staff not recognize him. Charlie did manage to keep his job.
Another time we had a call to a child with appendicitis, a very attractive mum answered the door and said, “she is up in her bedroom, I will lead the way” the stairs were very steep and as I followed her up I could not help noticing that she was wearing a mini skirt and nothing underneath. Having checked the patient I went back to the ambulance for a carry chair and on my return the mum was standing at the top of the stairs facing me. Half way up the stairs I tripped and fell flat on my face. My mate was behind me on the stairs and had seen what was happening. Later he was in fits and said, “Doug you should have been looking where you were going, not looking where you would like to go.”
One year I was on duty at the speed trials on the sea front. One of the motorcycle riders had something jam in his front wheel while doing something like 120 m.p.h. He was thrown off of his bike and landed head first onto a large concrete block; he was killed instantly, his head having been pushed down into his chest. We rushed him to hospital and had a doctor come out to the ambulance. He was a new young doctor and the state of the body shook him. He was a bit lost for words and said, “Did you give him any oxygen”. My reply to that was “where”.
One very bad winter when there was lots of snow on the ground, we had to go to the back end of Saltdean to get a patient in for what we were told was essential treatment. We were a three-man crew with snow chains, sacks of salt grit and shovels. It took us quite a time to get through the deep snow and ice. When we did arrive we found him sitting in front of a big open fire, and what did he say to us. “You must be joking; I am not going out in weather like that”.
We took a lady home from hospital, she gave us a nice tip then said; “don’t tell my husband as he is a bit mean”. When we took her into the house on our carry chair her husband said, “You chaps do a great job; I must give you a tip”. Well what could we say; the wife was happy that we kept our mouths shut.
We had to take an old Jewish man into hospital. He had his three sons with him and all of them asked us (unknown to each other) to give him some special treatment and each one gave us a tip. Great! Having got the old man into hospital with our normal loving care, he gave us the normal Jewish tip. “Bless you my son, god will reward you”.
There was a husband and wife team on the station staff. Pat and Ossie, Pat left Ossie and went off with another man. Ossie was most upset, not by the fact that she had left him, but that she had taken the pet dog with her. At a later date when they had got back together and I was then the station officer, Pat came into the office looking very upset and asked if she could have compassionate leave. I said, “What has happened Pat?” She said “the dog has died”.
We received a call to a Chinese restaurant very early one morning. One of the waiters had been found hanging in the kitchen. If that was not enough to put you off your Chinese supper, while there we noticed that the kitchen waste bins were full of pet food tins. Enjoy your meal.
One day we had a call to a building site, a wall had collapsed. My mate Tony was driving; he was backing the ambulance and collided with a wheel barrow full of bricks. The handle made a hole through the back door. We had to laugh at the accident report. “I was driving the vehicle when a wheel barrow hit me in the rear”.
One weekend I was crewed up with a new young member of staff. We had taken a patient home to Hove and were returning to base. He asked if we could go back via Western road, I said “why not”. It was a Saturday afternoon, what he wanted was to look at all the crumpet. He kept saying things like, “cor, look at that” and “cor fancy that”. I got fed up with this after a while and said, “When you get older you will find that you would rather have a steak and kidney pudding”. “I hope I never get as old as that”, he replied.
One of our crews had an emergency at Brighton Railway Station. A man had jumped in front of a train as it pulled into the far end of the platform. Now this is the type of emergency that you hope that you will never be involved in. I am pleased to say that I never was. The normal result is that the body is cut into small pieces by the wheels. You then have to collect all the pieces on a plastic sheet. A really horrible job.
We were told by the crew that was unlucky enough to be involved, that the head gave the most trouble, it kept rolling off the sheet. They managed to get hold of one of the old type square biscuit tins and were able to place the head in that. It did manage to put us all off biscuits for a while.
One of my shift mates was George, he was a very nice chap but very, very, mean, when it came to putting petrol in his car. He would go into a garage and put just one gallon in the tank then expect it to take him miles. One day when we were going off duty his car would not start, he had the bonnet up, spark plugs out, carburettor to pieces etc. We had our own idea on what the trouble was, but watched for a while, and then asked him if he had checked his petrol. Yes that was it, out of petrol once again.
George was also very well known for his toast, he loved toast. Every time he was on duty he would make some toast, but most of the time he would manage to burn it. One day our chief officer, who we were told did not have a very good sense of humour, entered the station took one sniff of burnt toast and said, “is George on duty”.
We attended an emergency in a little narrow side street off St. James Street. It was full of parked cars all down one side of the road. When we parked we could not help blocking the road. A car pulled up behind us and the driver started sounding his horn and shouting, “You can move that f….. ambulance out of my way and be f….. quick about it”. I tried to tell him that we were on a serious emergency, but he did not want to know. He still continued to shout, swear and sound his horn. He then indicated that we might soon be the ones requiring treatment. He was a really nasty bit of work.
Now for the good part, what he did not know was that a police car had arrived just before us and was parked in front of the ambulance. The two police officers had overheard all of this, when they walked round the side of the ambulance with note books in hand he got the shock of his life. They really went to town on him, obstructing an emergency vehicle, threatening an ambulance crew, use of obscene language in public, sounding a horn while stationary, and disregard for public safety. They said they would also want to check his driving licence, tax, insurance, lights, tyres, etc. etc. We met the two officers later in the day on an-other emergency. They were all smiles and said that they had thrown the book at him.
One evening a young man was taken into casualty with a cut on his penis, we did not know how it came about. The sister on duty had a good sense of humour, she knew full well what she was doing when she handed him over to a new, pretty young nurse. She had the job of cleaning the wound and applying a bandage. The fact that the young nurse had to handle his private parts made him shall we say, somewhat aroused. The bandage went on nice and tight the nurse having no trouble. It was only a short time later when the embarrassed nurse had finished, that he was able to relax and wouldn’t you know it, the bandage fell off.
There used to be a bar under the ice rink in West Street. One evening we were called to a really big fight that was going on inside. When we arrived we could see the bottles and chairs flying through the air and blood running down the inside of the windows. Lots of police were standing outside, so did we. A police inspector said to me, “get going lad, there are injured people inside”. My reply was, “you must be joking, we’ll treat them when your men bring them out here”.
Our deputy chief when we joined East Sussex was a nasty bit of work; in particular he did not like women working on the service. The lady drivers at Brighton got together and sent him a model pig. This was on a base board marked, “to a male chauvinist pig”. He loved it, he was so proud of it that he put it on a special shelf in his office for everyone to see. He would say to all of his visitors “look at that, they know who is the boss”.
We attended an emergency which involved a severed artery. As you would guess there was blood everywhere. Back home to dinner, Pearl produced fish and chips, all very nice. As is normal I covered it in tomato sauce, big mistake. Another meal that I could not eat, all that red sauce really put me off.
During one of the worst winters that I have ever known we had constant heavy snow for twenty four hours or more, there was ice under the snow and we had drifts of six feet in some places.
Most vehicles were unable to move including ambulances. Having tried to get a patient in from Woodingdean late that evening we had to abandon the ambulance on the Warren Road, it was impossible to get up the hill due to drifts and abandoned cars. It was then a case of walking back to the ambulance station in Elm Grove. What a terrible walk that was, right over the brow of the hill in a blizzard, no cover up there, we were freezing. When we did get back to base we found that our chief officer had sent staff over to the local shop to buy lots of tin soup, bread, tea, milk etc. That hot food and drink was marvellous.

Story_023e