Ok, lets begin with Friday 6th:-
Arrive at Inverness Youth Hostel and begin the banter, with shades, sun hats, general meeting and bonding with other Red Cross folk, and have an over all good time. Later on, seven of us decide we are hungry, and as food is getting no where near us fast, we decide to go out in pursuit of it ourselves. We dash up to Inverness city centre and up the high street in search of nourishment, and ask two coppers if there were any pizza places near by. Random, yes, but it worked, as they gave us directions to a Dominos. Chuffed that there was a take-away pizza place we hunt down the Dominos and grab three medium cheese pizzas between the seven of us. It was all going so well, until we left Dominos and stepped out into sheets of pouring rain hammering down onto the city centre pavements with such force that the raindrops bounced off the concrete. With a relatively lengthy walk back to the hostel, you can only imagine how wet we were going to get. We ended up running the last leg back, as the rain seemed to get heavier, and as sod's law would have it, just as we reached the hostel - soaking wet, in t-shirts and dripping like drowned rats - the rain slowed down to a gentle shower.
To top it all off, the pizza (although surprisingly not soggy) was cold and pretty hard. However, we were all really too hungry to care, and ate it anyway.
Saturday 7th:-
The first of the two epic days of Rockness. The banter began at mid-day, and I found myself with a radio and instructions to temporarily look after a group that consisted mainly of observers. That was all well and fine, just as long as we didn't get any major casualties. Thankfully, the responsibility didn't rest on my shoulders for too long.
So the day went on, and we gained our first, more serious casualty - a young-looking lad, shaking violently, who clearly needed help at the Hospital Tent. One colleague took him there, and that was that.
Later on, we found yet another casualty - unconscious male, already in the recovery position thanks to the people who found him, with sick trickling from the side of his mouth. If he hadn't been in the recovery position, that silent vomit would have choked and killed him - thank you people who found him. So as I radioed in with the urgent message (urgent radio call number 1 - this meant everyone else using the radios had to shut up for me - the power) paramedics arrived to aid us. From then onwards they dealt with the situation, and that was the excitement over for us.
The day progressed, and an incident did occur which I will not go into great detail and depth about, however I will say that it involved the solo fatality of Rockness this year.
After this, things seemed to slow a bit. I was meant to finish my shift at 6pm, along with the other younger (and in some cases, newer) teens, which I had never been truly happy about (not because I think I'm better than the others, but I do have a year's experience which I felt should have allowed me to stay on and be treated as an older, more experienced first aid member; it's only fair). However, after the recent events, I was allowed by my boss to work on till midnight and do a full 12 hour shift. I was grateful for this, as I was allowed to join a second first aid team up at one of the campsites to do the evening shift. This was good fun - the people there were a great bunch, some of who I recognised from previous events, others who I had only just met. Either way, they were a great group of people who were all friendly, so if they ever read this, thanks to them.
I think in the future I'll make a point of not tempting fate - I said "I bet at midnight, just as we're about to go off duty, we'll get something."
I wasn't half wrong.
Just as 12 o'clock came and we were about to radio in to organise the change of teams so the night duty folk could take over, we had a woman approach us and say in a rather anxious tone, "Excuse me, my friend's not waking up, and she's not responding to anything I do."
Bugger.
So away we go, following her into the dark abyss of the ghetto-like tents (we did refer to the site as a sort of festival ghetto, as it really was...ghetto-like) and we found our casualty passed out, unconscious - in the recovery position, yay - on the floor. So I radioed in (urgent radio call number 2) requesting the aid of ScotAmb (Scottish Ambo service, in case you didn't click with that) and helped maintain her airway. My colleague gave her oxygen, and we kept her warm with blankets, sleeping bags, and anything else that could give her heat, whilst monitoring her vital signs, i.e. pulse, sats and breathing. She really wasn't responding to anything; not voice, not even pain with a good nip on the ear or fingernail. Thankfully she started to come round during our wait for the ambo crew - she could feel the oxygen mask on her face and tried to shove it off many a time, failing wonderfully to do so.
A good twenty minutes later after the initial radio transmission, our paramedics arrived with an ambulance, and we helped get her on the scoop and into the back of the ambo without many problems.
A job well done, we were finally free to head for the hostel, and our beds.
I apologise for waking up the friends I shared a room with - stupid card key thing for the door wouldn't work at all, so was forced to knock.
Not that we got much sleep in those rooms anyway; the wooden bunk beds we slept in creaked mega loudly at the slightest movement, so a peaceful night's rest was hardly on the cards anyway.
Sunday 8th:-
Another 12 hour shift that I managed to charm my way into - woo!
Sunday was a lot more laid back, starting at mid-day again, and with virtually nothing happening in the main stage area for those of us who weren't grab team members. I did start out in a small mobile patrol, which allowed us to make the most of the glorious sunny weather, and enabled me to nip down to a merchandise stall and nab a Rockness t-shirt! After that, we ended up being stuck in the pit of the main stage - that sounds great, I hear you cry, but when you've been there and done it once already, another couple of hours stuck there with music pounding through your body from giant vertical speakers standing right behind you isn't the kind of position you want to be in. One, it gets pretty boring, and two, it's not nice on your body to have to put up with the constant vibrations of heavy bass music. Sure, it's good at a club, party or disco, but on duty when you have to stand right beside it...the novelty soon wears off.
So, a part from letting the odd person through to the Field Hospital tent, we weren't let loose back into the outside world until after dinner in the evening, when I finally got out on another mobile patrol. We based ourselves at the entrance/exit to the 'Skins' tent (the heavy beats club tent where, yep, channel 4's 'Skins' were filming).
Besides the odd plaster that had to be applied, and getting chatted up by a drunk or two (I'm too gorgeous to be a medic, apparently) nothing really happened injury wise, which is good for the public having a good time. Us first aiders had a good time too, dancing to the odd club remix.
It wasn't until midnight when - yeah, you've guessed it - the action picked up again. Firstly, we had a collapse in the middle of the rave taking place in the packed 'Skins' tent, so in we went, and as one lassie radioed for the grab team outside, and my other two colleagues helped the unconscious bloke lying (in the recovery position again!) on the floor, I acted as crowd control, which I was surprisingly good at, and one of my fellow first aiders even made a point of commenting on this fact. So we got him out, with the aid of the grab team and their stretcher, and sent him off down to the Field Hospital.
Almost half an hour later, we got a suspected spinal casualty, which I radioed in for (third and final urgent radio call of the weekend) and got the grab team over to sort him out too. As the process took place of safely transferring the casualty from floor to stretcher, I tended to, firstly, a spot of crowd control, followed by something more along the lines of emotional support.
The poor guy's girlfriend and two best mates were standing near by, cold, worried and upset by what was happening to their beloved friend and boyfriend who was currently being immobilised by the team. So I took it upon myself to comfort them and calm down the sobbing girlfriend who was anxious beyond belief - very understandably - for her man who was now being strapped down onto a stretcher.
Roughly 20 mins later we got the boy down to the Field Hospital, and I accompanied the three girls, explaining to them everything that was going on and not to be worried.
When it later came to telling them the news of his transfer from Field Hospital to Raigmore Hospital, it was up to me to do so.
Amazingly, what ever it was that I said or did to them had calmed them down considerably, and by the end of the night I was blushing with the compliments I was given. I received three grateful hugs, six kisses (one on each cheek from all three of them) and a barrel-full of thanks and praise, one of which stands out pretty fondly in my mind; "You've been the only paramedic who had actually helped me and made me feel better about all this. All the others seem so stuck up, but you come down to our level - you're more human."
That's most probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, and for one thing I'm not even a paramedic, so that just adds to the compliment!
After leaving the hospital tent on a total high with a warm fuzzy feeling inside, knowing that I had actually helped someone this weekend, I was barked at by a colleague - the dude who's second in command, if you like - to get on the minibus as we were heading back to the hostel soon, and stay on the minibus so he knows who's still to get back to the base. Talk about gratitude. But hey, I had to smile as I boarded that bus - nothing else could dampen that feeling, not for a while anyway.
We drove back to the hostel that early Monday morning, and gathered our stuff, and drove back home to bonnie Elgin, everyone pretty much content with the weekend. I know I was; I had just gained some of the most valuable, confidence-boosting experience that I had hoped to gain, and I was happy - tired, but happy.
Ok, so in that lovely long post I've probably come across as totally self-centered and all the rest, but I really don't mean to sound like I'm blowing my own horn. A lot happened which still excites me now when I think about it - it truly was a brill weekend for me personally, which I wanted to write about.
But of course, I also want to make a point about how well everyone did during those busy two (in some cases three, for the folks who worked on Friday too) days when the public let loose on drink, drugs and dangerous stunts. Well done to one and all - every member of the Red Cross present at the event did their branches and their teams proud. We all worked well together, and although things could have been better in some circumstances - nothing's perfect - what did go well worked, and I can safely say the event wouldn't have run as smoothly without us. So high 5s and thumbs up all around people.
Of course, thanks to the security staff, event organisers, catering staff, the amazing emergency services personnel (the police and paramedics) and the A&E staff who worked those long hard hours at the Field Hospital tent - the event would definitely not have been such a success without you all. You all kicked ass.
And well done to the public who went for the festival buzz and entertainment - well done for not all getting so drunk that you needed us to save you, and hope you guys enjoyed the weekend.
But above all, here's to the saddening fatality of the young lad whose time at Rockness was all too soon cut short. My heart goes out to his friends and family, and to all who knew him, well or not. All I can say is he was in good hands right until the end. May he rest in peace.
Perhaps this year's wonderful Rockness should go down in his memory.
So overall, the whole Rockness weekend was one of variety. For anyone who has the festival fever, I'd say go next year; it's pretty much worth the journey into the depths of the Highlands.
And another thing which can be said about this year's Rockness - we were damn lucky with the weather.
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