Ex-paramedic Steve back in action to help cyclist
AFORMER paramedic from Runcorn was called back into action after a cyclist was knocked unconscious at an event.
Steve Evans MBE tended to the rider both while waiting for an ambulance, and when the singlecrewed vehicle arrived he jumped on board to look after the patient.
The incident happened at a cycling event in Hale.
Steve’s actions took place as the veteran paramedic approached the 50th anniversary of when he joined the ambulance service on September 20, 1971, straight from school and aged 16 as a teenager from Toxteth.
Steve, 66, an avid cyclist and member of two separate clubs, said: “One of the cyclists at an event in Hale had an accident.
“He crashed and really hurt himself and was knocked unconscious.
“Because I was marshalling the event, someone came over and said: ‘Steve, Steve, someone’s collapsed’.
“I found this guy, he had a head injury.
“The paramedic came across and said ‘Steve Evans you left five years ago’.
“The ambulance was singlemanned. There was only one paramedic.
“Now we’ve got a problem. How do we look after this patient? “The paramedic has given me a stiff neck collar and we’re operating as part of a team, scooping him up, and I’m part of the ambulance crew.
“The paramedic car is going to go to Co-op in Halebank - it’s well lit and there are people around, and I’m going to get in the back of the ambulance and look after the patient and one of the lads will ride behind, and I was back in an ambulance looking after a patient.
“It was like I had never been away.”
His intervention in Hale was not the only way he’s continued to help to save lives since retiring five years ago, having published a core guide for paramedics, working and training, on how to read an electrocardiogram (ECG), and holding webinars for thousands of student life-savers around the world.
He said: “I retired five years ago.
“I don’t work for the ambulance service.
“I’ve been helping to save lives for the last half century.
“Having retired I’ve now done a tonne of work on the internet saving thousands of lives by teaching.
“Anyone still in the ambulance service after 50 years needs their head checking.
“It’s half a century of helping to save lives.
“I joined the ambulance service on September 20, 1971 as a young man.
“I then served for 44-and-ahalf years.
“During my time with the ambulance service I became a published author and by my writing I was then able to teach other people throughout the country.
“So what happened was I was being pestered by people because I’d tutored to help them become paramedics.
“At one point most paramedics had a copy of my book on ECGs in their uniform while on duty which is absolutely fantastic.
“We had lost the original copy so we reproduced it - the next thing is SP Services, the biggest first aid supplier, got in touch and said ‘Steve, your book on SCGs was one of the best books we’ve sold, we must reproduce it digitally and put it on our website’.
“This was going to be free, it’s so much simpler.”
A downloadable version was produced so paramedics could access it on the move, including for ECG pattern recognition.
The book has now had 30,000 downloads worldwide.
Several universities soon came calling to invite Steve to do talks online.
Steve, originally from Liverpool but who later moved to Runcorn, has embraced the chance to reach more people using the internet.
He said: “I’m a state pensioner, thanks to using Zoom and webinars I’ve reached 10,000 people worldwide using this format.”
“If someone had asked me as a fresh-faced lad at 16 years old, ‘do you think you would still be saving lives 50 years on?’ the answer would be ‘I don’t think so’.
“It was so far into the future, it was beyond comprehension.
“The job has changed beyond recognition.
“When I joined the ambulance service, we drove converted bread vans, they were a bread delivery van chassis, we were using bandages left over from the Second World War.
“We had two red woollen blankets and a bottle of oxygen.
“Today’s modern ambulance costs £160,000 and when it’s fully equipped it’s a mobile hospital. “I’ve seen all the changes.
“It wasn’t our fault but it was the dark ages, to what is the space age today.”