“999 mode activated”. It sounds like an announcement you’d hear in an episode of 24 Hours in A&E, but for London ambulance workers Omar and Llamar, it is the soundtrack to their working day.
“We’ll look after you,” emergency medical technician (EMT) Llamar tells a tearful septuagenarian on her way to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, holding her hand as we weave through the west London traffic. Understandably, the patient, Margot*, is scared. She doesn’t like hospitals but she’s just been told she might have sepsis and has been struggling to breathe or speak for six days. “We’re getting you to hospital quickly because you’re showing septic signs,” Llamar tells her over the sound of the siren. “Don’t be too scared, OK? Your oxygen’s really good, you’re still managing on your own.”
