The Day I Became the Patient

For those who don’t know, in December 2020 I decided to take a sort of career break and do something totally different for 2 years. I had just finished upskilling my EMT training, having previously volunteered on MDA ambulances, and I decided that I would join the organisation to work as an instructor. MDA is Israel’s national ambulance service, blood bank, Red Cross society and more. It’s an innovative organisation and also the country’s leading provider of First Aid training.

I became an instructor and on my first day wasn’t teaching basic first aiders as I expected… I was teaching 3rd year medical students about out-of-hospital trauma care. Talk about being thrown in the deep end. Over the next year and a half I taught thousands of students - from basic first aid for high schoolers, to pediatric care for expecting parents and from all of MDA’s EMTs in Tel Aviv to Doctors at the country’s health providers. I became the lead instructor and Deputy Head of Training for the region. One of the topics I taught regularly was about life threatening allergies - also known as anaphylaxis. Remember that, it’s important.

In addition to working as an instructor I fulfilled every child’s dream and also got my license to drive with lights and sirens. I juggled teaching with shifts and emergency response even whilst off-duty. It was a blast (mostly).

Anyway, one day in the office I head across the road to the café together with my colleague Noam (a paramedic) and order an orange and carrot juice. After half a cup, I start feeling an itchy feeling in my throat - a familiar sign of an allergic reaction.

As far as I knew, I wasn’t allergic to carrots or oranges. In fact, having suffered a number of relatively minor allergic reactions (to apples, pears and certain animals), I had been for allergy tests with a specialist. Whilst he diagnosed me with allergies to dust, pollen and fur, he said I had no food allergies, didn’t need an EpiPen (the automatic injectors that save your life in a major reaction) and could eat whatever I liked. The reason I had reacted to apples and pears is because of Oral Allergy Syndrome - the result of fruit having absorbed pollen and therefore causing a minor local reaction around my mouth when eating.

So on this day that I’m drinking my juice and start feeling the itchy sensation, I know what’s happening but I’m not worried - I tell the paramedic with me that I need to go and get my antihistamines, but once I’ve taken it I’ll meet him in his office to continue chatting. And that’s what I did.

Whilst I’m sitting there, I’m sneezing - non-stop. The itchyness is getting worse. My lips are tingling. I step out of the office because it was unpleasant to be sneezing around others. “Do you want steroids?”, he asked. I said sure, should help, if you think I need it. So we go and he gives me an injection of steroids. By this point I’m having some trouble breathing and my eyes are really itchy. He takes a stethoscope and listens to my lungs but they’re clear for the moment. “Do you want adrenaline also?” he asked me. He seemed pretty chilled and I assumed the steroids would take a minute to kick in, so I said no, I’m good.

I went back up to my office and he went back to his. On the way, some people asked me if I was ok - they said it looked like I had been crying. “I’m good” I replied, even though by this point I was finding it difficult to open my eyes.

The swelling had largely subsided by the time we got to taking the selfie, but here you can see what I looked like. Big thanks to Itamar, Noa, Tal, Shiri and Galit (L-R) for being there to help me and laugh at me as well as Noam, Noam and Ami who aren’t in the photo.

I opened the door to the Training Office which leads through to mine and the 4 instructors chatting turn silent as they stare at me. What I didn’t know was that my eyes and lips were all swollen - in addition to the itchy throat, tingling lips, wheezy breathing, excessive sneezing… “I’ll be fine… had an allergic reaction but I’ve had solumedrol… it will pass”

Noa, a paramedic and instructor who joined MDA through the military, looked me in the (swollen) eye and said, “I’m giving you three options. The first is we go down to one of the intensive care ambulances, check you properly. The second is we call a medical supervisor to come and have a look at you. The third is Shiri* gets an ambulance and takes you to hospital”.

(*Shiri was another instructor standing there and the only one of the 4 qualified to drive the ambulance with lights and sirens. She’s also my ex-girlfriend.)

If there was one thing I was trying to avoid it was drama, so a trip to the ER with sirens to make sure everyone knew what was going on was off the cards. “Fine, get Lior (the medical supervisor)” I replied.

Lior wasn’t around but Ami was. He comes back in as Noa gives a summary of what’s happened. He’s trailed by another paramedic called Noam and an EMT called Itamar, friends of mine who came to join the drama. “Bring me a kit, let’s give him adrenaline”, says Ami.

With three paramedics and four EMTs standing around, asking questions, laughing and filming so they can keep laughing later, I was in good hands. I roll up my sleeve as one paramedic draws up a syringe of adrenaline and attaches the needle; another wipes my arm with an alcohol pad, another gives the injection.

It was HUGE and I was REALLY brave, but they didn’t give me a sticker or a lollipop. I was furious.

Thankfully, I was fine after that. My symptoms immediately subsided and were replaced by the side effects of adrenaline, which are minor. But from this experience I took a few lessons.

Lessons from my experience

1) Epipens are really important!

It was very lucky that I was at work in the ambulance station because if this had happened anywhere else, I would have needed an ambulance straight away as I didn’t have an adrenaline auto-injector (EpiPen is a brand of adrenaline auto-injectors). I knew the signs, was surrounded by professionals and had the drugs readily available - it’s shocking to think that some people with known allergies don’t carry their EpiPens with them.

2) Mass Medic Incidents are intimidating

If I thought being a medic at a Mass Casualty Incident was intimidating - being a patient surrounded by medics is more. Although these were my friends, trying to answer questions and follow conversations with multiple people was overwhelming (I also couldn’t fully breathe or see which didn’t help). There are many situations where less is more and taking people out the room is now a key weapon in my arsenal (sometimes that person is myself - recognising that someone else might succeed without my presence hindering).

3) You need to experience the other side

This doesn’t just go for emergencies. The more you can walk in the other side’s shoes, whatever it is you’re doing, the more you understand them and can be successful. This is particularly true for marketing, customer success and sales.

4) Don’t be afraid to take things seriously

I was dismissive of my symptoms at first and had friends who looked out for me and took control. This came from my fear of being labelled the drama queen. Seems I didn’t learn my lesson as 6 months later when I fell of my electric scooter, I self-diagnosed myself as “bashed up but fine” and turns out I have a broken bone in my wrist.