People / Unsung Hero
Unsung hero: 50 years on the front line
To be good at your job is one thing, to be passionate about it is another. Yet to exceed at both qualities for half a century is something extraordinary.
For the past 50 years ambulance man Norman Price has been at the front line of emergencies in Bristol.
It was just before Christmas in 1974 when the IRA bombed Park Street; two explosions rocked the street and it was sheer luck that no one was killed. Luck and the dedication of the emergency services, including ambulance man Norman Price who worked tirelessly to help those shocked and injured.
Norman, 71, has been on the front line of many major incidents in Bristol over the past 50 years; the St Pauls riots in 1980, disturbances at Horfield Prison in 1986 and Pucklechurch Remand Centre in 1990 but, despite the horror of many of the situations he’s found himself in, he’s never let it get to him: “If you dwell on it, you never get the job done,” he says.
It was a boyhood dream to join the ambulance service and when Norman qualified and joined the service on June 6 1966 there were only three stations in the Bristol area. As the service expanded across the city Norman went on to work in 11 stations across the city, delivering 37 babies and saving countless lives.
Over 50 years he’s learnt the secret to the job is simple: “Understand what the job’s about, and be able to talk to all the patients the same; be it lords and ladies, or a tramp.”
During his years on the road he’s seen it all and been everywhere; from the horrors of being first on the scene of a major accident to attending a garden party with the Queen. He’s received numerous honours including a 1995 award from the Royal Humane Society after rescuing a woman threatening to jump off an eight storey building and a 1998 award from the Chairman of the Regional NHS body for ‘utmost dedication in caring for patients.’
The world of medicine has changed enormously from when he started but despite the technological advances Norman’s wife, Janet says some things stay the same: “He’s old fashioned. He is proud that he does his job properly, the way he was trained to do it from the start.”
Even in his eighth decade Norman is still working as part-time in the patient transfer service. Looking back he says his career has been “harrowing, difficult, and very frustrating sometimes” but it’s something he would never change. “it is very rewarding at the end of it.”
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