Kazakhstan Ambulance

Job of medical workers has never been easy. Today we are going to learn more about it and spend twenty four hours with an ambulance team from Kazakhstan. So you are invited to become a doctor for one day, too.



There are 150 ambulance cars at the station today, one car for one team.

All the teams have new gadgets: onboard GPS navigators and communicators that allow to monitor all incoming calls whose amount is rather big – about three thousand a day!

There are three types of paramedic teams depending on how complex a case is. The first one is used to work with bruises, fractures, high temperature, etc. The second is for heart deseases and other more complicated cases. The third, resuscitation team, handles the most complicated cases – accidents, gunshot wounds, heart and respiratory failures, etc. Such a team is equipped with all necessary modern stuff for life support during emergency transportation to the hospital.

Ten dispatchers take calls from all over the city and distribute them among eight ambulance substations located in different parts of the city.

They define how complex this or that case is, distribute a call to every doctor of a certain ambulance team who use communicators to get it.

What we normally call “a diagnosis” is called “a reason or a motive for attendance”.  At 8:29 they get a call with a complaint about cardiac acute myocardial ischemia.

At 8:47 they are already at the patient’s place. GPS navigators help to get to any place faster.

The granny is 71, she complains of pain in her heart. Polite doctors have more chances to get necessary information from patients and to make a preliminary diagnosis.

The sugar level in granny’s blood is higher than normal so they prescribe antihypertensive drugs. Paper works takes much time, too.

The workers are ready for anything – biting dogs, drunk madmen, crazy drug addicts and they know they are not Gods and cannot save everyone.

Sometimes patients forget to tell a doorphone code and the team has to wait at a door.

When they are back at the station they can finally rest a bit. Some of them work crossword puzzles, others discuss latest political news.

Here they can take any new medical stuff if necessary.


Vladimir has been working as an ambulance car driver for almost twenty four years.


This person is 83, he has not been eating for the third day, any water or food taken comes back out.

The doctor advises the man to consult with oncologists as soon as possible.

Darkhan is a paramedic, he’s been working here for one year and a half. So he often needs help from more experienced specialists.

This time they have lunch at 4 p.m., but sometimes they can do it only at 9 p.m. or even at night!

They bring food from home.

A new heart complaint and they have to go.

Ullan has been in the team for 2,5 years. She likes her job.

The man complained of a headache, high temperature, high blood pressure, home treatment was not effective. However he didn’t mention anything about his heart…

They lower his blood pressure with warm magnesium and take the man to the hospital – wheezing in his lungs can be serious.


It could be pneumonia.

The doctors complain that they have so many “heart calls” while patients have pain in stomachs, their fingers cut or even cats which cannot come down from trees. They know that a reaction to a heart complaint is faster and they use it. Meanwhile a person who really has such a case may get medical aid too late.

Yernar is still a student, he wants to become a surgeon in future.

This guy aged 23 was cleaning the slippery roof from snow, fell from there and lost consciousness. When he regained it he felt a strong headache.

Now he’s being taken to the hospital.

In the neurosurgery department.

Paramedic Dilshat gets 10-18 emergency calls a day.

Looks like the victim of this accident has his ribs broken.

But he worries about the car more than about himself. Now he has to restore it. The doctors remind him he could die.

These doctors are lucky, they have ten minutes for drinking tea.

But they get back to work soon. The child has a high temperature and convulsions. The parents are rather scared.

The doctors insist on hospitalization.

They have to register first.

This woman has been working here for seventeen years. She reminds that New Year’s night was hard as hell this year – three stab wounds, one gunshot wound.

Katya used to be a member of an ambulance team but it turned out to be too hard morally for her, now she works as a dispatcher.

A new call – a girl, living in a dorm, has got burnt.

It turned out she dropped a cup of boiling water on her leg when wanted to drink tea.

The doctor asks to girl to calm down. She was shouting at everyone being in panic. Sometimes doctors need to raise their voices too.
The girl got a bandage of novocaine and was taken to hospital.


This woman, 62, has a swollen face. Her dentist applied some medicine she was allergic to.

The next call: a baby has a high temperature and convulsions.


They decide to take the baby to hospital.

The cars are fueled only after midnight.

This young man, 23, has an ordinary ARVI.

The medical workers have a small problem – their devices need to be charged too often.

All ambulance teams are away

3:30 a.m. Loud screaming from the third floor of the nearby house is heard. It’s a girl screaming – she has just lost her granny. The doctors did their best to save her but her heart finally stopped beating…



Source ; www.englishrussia.com