Wounded Wolf

First game of the season, away to Finsbury Dazzlers. We all had our spiffing new team shirts - no logo or anything, but in the team colours (black, and a nice bright orange). And we lost. Didn't play badly, but the other side's experience told. The "run-ahead rule" (aka the Mercy Rule, or, less kindly, the Slaughter Rule) meant that the game was stopped after the third innings, as the bad guys were so far ahead (25-1), but the teams elected to play on for practice. We ended up wishing we hadn't. Running between second and third, Alison fell suddenly. She had dislocated her knee. One of those situations where all first aiders can do is call an ambulance and try to stop people doing more harm than good (a woman on the other team who reckoned she was a first aider herself was offering her painkillers - that's a bit of a no-no). The ambulance didn't arrive within the first half-hour. Still not one available. I regretted not laying it on a bit more heavily, and claiming it was more serious than it was - then I thought that if I'd claimed she was going into shock or unconsciousness, they might have diverted an ambulance that could have been going to someone with life-threatening problems, so it was probably as well I hadn't.
Alison's knee fell back into position, and she wanted to go home, and it was getting dark, and the ambulance still hadn't turned up. Alex and David carried her off the park, and we tried to find a cab. Eventually, the ambulance arrived before we could find a taxi, which was perhaps as well. Brave soldier that she is, Alison wanted to go home rather than to A&E, but her knee still wasn't right. Jane, a first aider, was trying to persuade her to go to hospital just as the ambulance turned up. The paramedics turned on their bedside manner, reassuring her (as Alex said, they seem to be trained in babytalk, but in a good way), and looked her over. they saw the swollen knee, and took her straight off to hospital. At any rate, she'll have got proper treatment for her knee straight away, and that's a good thing. Rotten luck for her, though.