Submitted on: November 18, 2014
Updated on: December 2, 2014
Submitted by:
Rob Lawrence
Chief Operating Officer
Richmond Ambulance Authority
Cell 804 205 2557
Office 804 254 1101
Fax 804 254 1102
Part 1
In this month’s podcast, Word on the Street host Rob Lawrence chats with Peter Simpson, one of the first paramedics from the UK’s East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust to join the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone.
EMS World has been posting regular updates from Pete as he begins his work as an ambulance coordinator in Freetown’s Ebola Command and Control Centre. See Letter from Africa: EMS at the Front Lines of the Ebola Crisis.
Rob talks to Pete about why he volunteered to go to Sierra Leone, his initial experiences in a country currently deemed one of the most dangerous in the world, and how up until just a short time ago there wasn’t even an EMS service available to respond to Ebola patients.
Part 2
In this podcast, Word on the Street host Rob Lawrence chats with Peter Simpson, one of the first paramedics from the UK’s East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust to join the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone. EMS World has been posting regular updates from Pete as he begins his work as an ambulance coordinator in Freetown’s Ebola Command and Control Centre. See Letter from Africa: EMS at the Front Lines of the Ebola Crisis.
Pete then talks to Will Pooley, the British nurse who contracted Ebola while volunteering in West Africa, was successfully treated in the United Kingdom and then returned to Sierra Leone to continue the fight against Ebola.
Part 3
In this episode, Peter Simpson, one of the first paramedics from the UK’s East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust to join the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone, guest hosts and talks to Catherine Jackson-Cole who works as an ambulance coordinator in Sierra Leone. A qualified pharmacist, Catherine is also a third-year medical student who studied under Dr Martin Salia in Freetown. Dr. Salia was recently transported to the United States after he contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone. Sadly, he passed away on November 17 at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Then regular Word on the Street host Rob Lawrence catches up with Peter to get an update on how the ambulance staff have been handling response to the Ebola crisis.