8 minute read
From Oil Fields to Field Medic and Beyond
From Oil Fields to Field Medic and Beyond
By: Oliver Carter
It had been a long and gruelling day moving from site to site. I had only recently left the military and now found myself in Basra, Iraq as part of a team that was assigned to protect engineers or staff working within the oil and gas sectors across Rumalaih oil fields.
It was my first close protection assignment and came only three months after completing my Medicine In Remote Areas (MIRA) course with ExMed, the industry standard at the time.
Then a call came in requesting a “medic” on site. Since most people were asleep and I was still up finalising things before bed, I was the clear choice, so I went to the office for a brief. Finally, the time had come to put all of the theory of my training courses into real-world practice. I told myself I was ready to deal with whatever I encountered on the field because I had been trained on most life-saving skills and interventions explicitly designed for remote or austere environments. And I was confident and prepared especially since the course was amazingly realistic and authentic with ex-military medics from special forces units.
Once I got in, the brief that I was given as the newly appointed medic was to check over one of the local Iraqi staff members. The history from another local was that a week before someone died overnight with similar symptoms.
The pressure was clearly on as I was now responsible for a person’s life. It was Ramadan, the holy month of fasting in the Muslim world and some of the reported symptoms were headache, pain, cramps, and dry lips and thirst. And when I saw the local, he looked like death! I conducted a few basic assessments, and I mean basic. Then told the operations manager that I thought he was suffering from severe dehydration. He needed fluids ASAP. We had the supplies on hand at the site, including the IV kit and a giving set, but we would need a medic to administer it.
“Can you do it?” he pleaded. I declined at first. He then pleaded once again as there was no medic there and no medical staff would see him for the next couple of days. In the end, I agreed and placed the IV line in, put up the fluid bag, then attached the fluid bag to the IV.
I thought how easy… and then I saw the blood running up the giving set! Even though I was quite pleased with myself, I had made a rookie mistake and left on the IV tourniquet. I quickly took it off, and it resolved immediately and started to run through. Valuable lesson learned!
Work then took me from Iraq to Libya during the national uprising against Colonel Ghaddafi. The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) were on the ground doing varied job roles, and we were tasked to provide armed security using B6 Land cruisers across Benghazi, Tripoli and Misurata. During this assignment, I filled many roles, but mostly as security. As time progressed, I saw myself in a dedicated medic role, still the only MIRA level medic in a dual security/medic role. This time I was provided with much more extensive equipment, and I learned a lot on the ground. At times, we had a CMT 1 level medic on hand to provide some advice, along with another medic who was studying as a remote paramedic. It was then that I realised that while I was continually learning on the job, I also knew that at some point, I wanted to further my training and knowledge.
But before embarking on furthering my education, I decided to leave the FCO contract and work for some time as an independent security advisor across Libya. This time around, I found myself unarmed, with no armoured vehicles and with mostly local Libyan connections to move around safely. Luckily I had developed some connections and built some loyalties while working out there for a couple of years. And these came in handy, though I couldn’t say the same for the medkits we carried! While they were fitted to the MIRA industry standard, we found that most were out of date. And with a shortage of supplies, most companies just relied on SOS international emergency response, hoping that nothing bad would happen. In the event of a medical emergency, we knew that no one would be on the ground for upwards of 36 hours after an incident! Not exactly a case of “call in the helicopters”...
This is right about then when I decided it was time to give serious consideration to continuing my education. After doing some research on the best medical courses, with the end aim to be a UK-registered paramedic, I found the best route was to start with an IHCD Technician course. A paramedic friend who was working on the circuit also recommended this. So I applied for the Ronin, South Africa course in February 2014.
I was accepted and then ultimately quit my job as a security manager and started to prepare for the course in Hout Bay, near Cape Town. The course was 6 weeks long, and although I expected it to be difficult, I soon realised that the learning curve was huge. Working in the townships and the cape flats, I was humbled by my own circumstances of living a better provided for life in the UK. Out there, some people had nothing but a corrugated metal roof and 2 square meters of dirt to live on.
One of my first jobs was to respond as an ambulance medic to a man who fell 25 feet through a load of scaffolding and hit the ground in a very awkward position. We suspected a C Spine injury. But because we were medics in training and still considered students, we were directed a lot. On that call, I was on C spine control and holding the man’s head in that position for the next hour.
It was an intensive training period on the Ronin course. And again, the learning curve while doing this job was steep. We would attend to jobs such as an old lady/man falling, drunken people hitting their heads and resuscitations. Occasionally, we attended major traffic accidents that would require a lot of resources.
Ultimately, I passed the course but to fully 'qualify' I would need to complete 750 hours on a front line ambulance, as well as a 3-week long emergency driving course. Further to that, I also wanted to work for a private ambulance company because I wanted the flexibility and freedom to still do overseas deployments.
Jump forward 12-14 months of ambulance shifts of immersive engagement and practise, I finalised my portfolio and sent it back to my training provider. Within a month or so, I was notified that I had qualified and gained my certificate. I was now an IHCD ambulance technician. Though when telling people my new title most just thought I fixed ambulances!
Luckily for me, I was now a step further to becoming a paramedic. And I had this to get my teeth into and work through, as the situation in Libya was pretty dire. The FCO evacuated through the border through Tunisia, and then they decided it was a no-go location for around 2 years. All work in the region had dried up.
In 2016, I was accepted on to the accelerated paramedic course (Technician to Paramedic) at Birmingham City University. For an entire 12 months, I did five 13-hour shifts per week and completed every assessment, exam, and assignment given to me. Exhausting doesn’t even come close to cutting it. Even some of the tougher tours in the military didn't come close to this intensity! But on completion, I was successfully registered as a UK paramedic. During this time, I gained education grants from the military of around £12,000-£13,000, including the full degree course paid for in its entirety.
And having completed this part of my career journey, I’ve now set up a company called Oscar Charlie Medical & Rescue. We provide training, event medical cover and consultancy in varied sectors. Using the education and training acquired from the quality companies I trained with, I was able to call upon a similar ethos to integrate a solid foundation of skills and education for medical, security, and safety sector specialists to gain further knowledge in varied sectors. Moving forward, we now have a rescue vehicle with water rescue capabilities, paramedic medical and rescue services for events, specialist safety for media and FREC 3/4/5 courses that are well recognised in varied industries.
Coming from a varied career track, I would like to give back training, education, advice and knowledge of my own experiences to others, both military, close protection, and civilian backgrounds alike. Feel free to reach out if you think I can be of service to you.
Wishing you well on your own journey!
Oliver Carter is the Founder of Oscar Charlie Medical and Rescue company, a bespoke training and medical services provider. Underpinning Oliver’s professional accomplishments are 12 years military service in the British Parachute Regiment, and Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). After transitioning from the military, Oliver has provided protection to HNW’s, worked as an advisor in Libya and Iraq, and is a fully qualified paramedic. His interest in medicine and passion for teaching led to him to form Oscar Charlie. For more information please visit: https://oscarcharlie.net/
