Experiences calling 911?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I’ve only had to call 911 once, when I fell down the stairs in our townhouse and broke my ankle. (This was in Fairfax County, VA.) I scooched my way over to the phone (I was home alone), and had the dispatcher pick up almost instantly (no hold). She offered to wait on the phone with me, but I declined (we’d already established that I hadn’t hit my head or blacked out) because I needed to make my way to the front door to unlock it for the paramedics/EMTs.

I honestly don’t remember how long it took for the first responders to arrive, because I was occupied with getting the door unlocked, after which I just lay back on the floor and tried to relax. It probably wasn’t more than 5-10 minutes-- I’m sure it seemed like longer than it actually was.

The first responders ended up calling a secondary team to transport me, but they did wait with me for the other ambulance to arrive.

Overall, I remember being impressed both by the speed and the quality of the service.

42

Several times. My office use to be on the corner of a busy intersection. We called every time there was an accident.

There was a garage across the street. One time a woman came to the garage, obviously out of her mind, and started yelling at one of the mechanics. He was laughing at her, I was wondering what to do, when she picked up a hammer and started banging on the cars. I called 911 and two police officers arrived in about two minutes. They talked to the woman and she started walking off, then picked up the same hammer and went for the cops. They took the hammer, one cop cuffed her and the other called two more cop cars. As she was being led to the police car, handcuffed, she picked up another hammer and started hammering the police car!

There was an incident where a guy broke into the Big Boss’s car (a $120K Mercedes), and was just sitting there with his big dog. I called 911 and explained the situation. A cop came right away, but couldn’t get into the car because the dog kept barking and growling. He had to call Animal Control.

43

911 works for me, but I don’t live in Yotown.

44

I didn’t get on the phone myself much, but only once and they didn’t take long.

I was living in Miami at the time. I rented a room from a lady, “Mama,” whose children had convinced her to rent out rooms, as her house was so close to the university, because that way she got extra income, wouldn’t be rattling around in a too-large house and there would be people around every day so if anything happened to her she’d be more likely to get help soon. She wasn’t very old chronologically but her medical history was thick enough to separate it into several volumes. I’d go to the doctor with her when I could; I discovered that she was triple-medicated and, with her daughter’s help, solved this (she was seeing three doctors, each of which thought he was her primary and only doctor… why would a podologist be the primary doctor of a diabetic with serious heart and liver conditions is beyond me); after several months I would measure her blood sugar every morning before leaving the house, as she was squeamish about the needle.

At the time this happened there was one other renter; Mama’s daughter Lena was also in the house because she happened to be taking some courses nearby, so she was staying there for the week the courses lasted. She was a nurse by training.

I woke up about 5am, very thirsty so I went to the kitchen for a glass of water. I thought I heard a strange noise in Mama’s room… paused… there was some indefinable noise again, sort of like moaning (and not in a pleasant way). I knocked on the door, the noise intensified, went in, discovered that Mama was lying on bloodied bedsheets. I verified that there were no visible wounds (it was internal bleeding that was so intense and had been going on for so long it had gotten outside), got some information out of her, called the daughter and got the daughter to call 911 while I got my Nivea (Mama was looking very dehydrated), a glass of water and the bottle of apple juice. When Lena, who was understandably upset and then some, got the medics on the phone they started asking questions about the state of the patient and she passed me the phone, I told them that since Mama was dehydrated we had started external and internal hydration and that, since I knew she’d normally be low on sugar at that time, I wanted to add some apple juice. They OK’d this. We continued with the hydration, warmed her, got as much information as possible about when had the bleeding started (at 10pm the previous night but she “hadn’t wanted to bother anybody,” at which point we almost killed her ourselves) and the ambulance from the fire department was there before Lena had found the insurance documents.

Lena and I reckoned that it was better if she went through her mother’s things looking for the documents (she’d probably find them more easily, she had more right to be looking at Mama’s stuff and it would give her some time to calm down) and then came over (she promised she’d take a taxi if she needed to), so it was me who went in the ambulance.

When we got to the hospital, Mama got whisked into a room as soon as we were through the door. The nurse didn’t want to let me in as I wasn’t a blood relation of Mama’s, but the boss of the EMTs told her “forget about family, she is the person in charge” and she did let me in. Lena arrived with the insurance documents while the doctor was giving me an update and again they wanted me to leave, but Lena rolled her eyes and said “she knows my mother’s health better than I do!” so I stayed.

Traveling in the red ambulance (I’d never noticed that those “fire department vans” were ambulances) was cool but it’s one of those cool things that it would be nice not having to do, if you know what I mean. The EMT guys were all real nice, and the thing about “not family” is a PITA but I know where it comes from, it makes sense so long as it’s not overdone.

45

Recently I saw a fragment of a Spanish TV program, where a pair of actors simulated having a fight in the street (big dude threatening his girlfriend, both calling each other enough nasty names to burn the ears off a statue). From what they said, they’d done a similar thing before, with different clothes and in a different location; one of the things they wanted to check was if people would behave different when the fighting couple looked “well off” and when they looked like they were barely on the good side of homeless. The skit lasted less than three minutes and ended with the cops arriving; only one person adressed them directly (both in the case I saw and in the previous one) but the pollice told the TV folk that 112 was “collapsed” from the amount of calls, they were having people on hold. The people from the program stressed that calling 112 really is the best thing to do in such a situation.

46

I’ve lost count, it’s less than a dozen times. The most memorable was when I lived in Indianapolis, and a drunk driver decided to park his pickup truck in my living and dining rooms, nearly on top of VWife and the dog.

Most of them have been recent, and I was calling on someone else’s behalf. Of course, when I’m in my home county I don’t need to call 911 since I have my radio with me and I can talk to the dispatcher directly. :wink:

::waves to St. Urho and Mosier::

47

Call 911, make a fireman come.

VunderBob, EMT / firefighter

48

We’ve called a number of times for various stuff, and our local police have been pretty much on site in an appropriate amount of time. One time, however, there was a brush fire in the wooded area next to our house. The fire dept. is a local volunteer one, and it’s about 5 - 10 blocks away. They couldn’t find the address. :rolleyes: By the time they figured it out, the neighborhood dads had put the fire out themselves with shovels and brooms.

49

Even for medical calls? :wink:

50

Well, yeah. Whenever I take a medical call, there’s a fireman present. :stuck_out_tongue:

51

Once.

I was getting the livin’ tar beat out of me by an ex and he ripped the phone out of my hand as I called 911. However, the call **did **go through so I thought someone would be showing up anyway.

Fortunately, the ex did storm out about five minutes and a bloody nose later. I put the phone back on the hook and it immediately rang.

“Did you call 911?”

“Yes. Is someone coming??!!”

“Yes, he is outside but he is waiting for back up to come to the door.”

I went outside and told him my ex had left. He then came in and made his report.

I guess that was the policy but really, it didn’t make me feel as confident in the process as I was before I tried it. I could have easily been killed while the cop waited outside.

52

I’ve called three times. The first call was when my 2 year old was choking on a strawberry. Fortunately, we got the berry out while I was on the phone with the dispatcher, so no one needed to come out. (The kiddo and I had a long hug and cry, though.)

The second incident happened while driving down the street in our neighborhood one afternoon. A very upset woman waved us down, sobbing and saying something in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish, so the only thing I could think to do was call 911. I explained the situation to the operator, she found someone who spoke Spanish, and the woman talked to whoever that was for about five minutes. My impression was that the police were going to meet her at her home, but I’m not really all that sure.

The third was when my four year old disappeared from the house. A neighbor stopped by and said that they’d seen QKid out and about and did we know that? After searching the neighborhood for for 20 minutes or so, I called 911. A couple of squad cars were there in not more than 5 minutes. They searched around our house, advised me to call all the neighbors I could think of, and started looking around themselves. The K-9 arrived after another 20 minutes or so - they were going to try to use the German Shepherds to track him. Eventually neighbors found him. He’d locked himself inside their house without anyone noticing just as they’d walked out the door to go over to another family’s house.

QKid inspired another call to 911 (between the strawberry incident and the getting lost incident). His daycare center called an ambulance for him when he broke his arm (it was a pretty bad break - require surgery to set and all). Those guys were great - they gave him a little stuffed tiger to help him be brave, they stopped by to see him in the hospital three times that day/night, and invited him to come for an individual tour of the fire station anytime.

QKid is pretty high maintenance! But overall, high marks for emergency services around here.

53

I call them one Sunday after seeing a half grown deer in my neighborhood. This area is not known as deer country and I didn’t know what else to do. The 911 operator said they had been getting calls all morning about that deer.

I don’t know whatever happened to the animal.

54

I’ve called 911 twice. The first was when I was out driving somewhere, and was stopped at a signal behind a pickup with heavily tinted windows. I could see someone in the backseat (it was a king cab) holding a gun to the head of the driver. Occasionally, he’d move the gun, pointing it to the ceiling, and then point it at the driver again. I got the license plate number, make and model of the truck, etc. and ran into a store to use their phone to call (this was pre-cell phone era). I remember feeling frustrated that I couldn’t describe the trucks occupants at all – they were just silhouettes to me.

Remarkably, I got a call from the police that evening, letting me know that they’d found the truck and pulled it over. Turns out it was a father and son, with a 12-year-old kid playing with a pop gun. Both of them got a stern lecture from the officers on when it is and is not appropriate to play with a pop gun. I was relieved and kind of embarrassed for having called, but as I said, I could only see their silhouettes through the window tinting.

Second time was when I came home to find my house broken into and ransacked. Police arrived within minutes.

55

Three times I think…

  1. Upstairs housemates (a pregnant girl and her boyfriend) were fighting loudly and crashing things. One said “call 911 call 911” so I did. But by the time the cops got here they had left the house and driven away somewhere. When they moved out we found several head shaped holes in the walls.

  2. My other housemate has diabetes (the salt kind not the sugar kind) and went into convulsions on the floor. Called 911 and the paramedics came.

  3. Was rear ended at a stop sign. Didn’t want to call 911 just to get an accident report (no injuries) but found it impossible to determine a non emergency number for the local police so was forced to call 911.

56

What’s that?

57

What people generally think of as diabetes is Diabeted mellitus, and causes abnormally high blood sugar levels. My housemate has Diabetes insipidus which causes excretion of very dilute urine (makes you pee a lot). This can of course have an effect on electrolyte levels. If they get too out of whack it affects nerve function. She’s had seizures a few times and once she was in a coma for over a month.

58

I’ve typed the numbers into a phone twice.

Once I had a concussion after an urban crash on my bicycle and I don’t remember dialing nor having any conversation with the dispatcher that eventually resulted in an ambulance picking me up. For a couple of days after my accident, I had assumed that people had found me and called the ambulance for me. This belief was reinforced by the post-it note I was holding when I regained full consciousness in the Emergency Room: “Mrs. Somebody at 123 ABC Street has your bike”.

After I’d recovered a bit, I bought a bouquet of “thank you” flowers and walked to the address to retrieve my bike and thank them for helping me. When I got there, they insisted that they had not called 911. They just found me sitting on the side of the road under a tree in front of their house with my bike, and a few minutes after they found me, an ambulance pulled up. They also returned my cell phone to me at that time, which another neighbor had found under the same tree. I flipped the phone open to find that 911 was the last number called. So, I had apparently called 911 myself, while concussed, and managed to relay enough information for them to find me. This was later corroborated by the ER.

The second time was because an ex-girlfriend of mine was threatening to kill herself. They dispatched a unit to her apartment, but probably wouldn’t have taken her against her will if it hadn’t been for the fact that they chose to call her psychiatrist and he recommended that they should take her and admit her for psych evaluation. To this day I am eternally grateful to her psychiatrist for doing that. Trying to disengage from someone who has BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) had taken me years, and it was much easier to do once she was admitted to a psych ward where I could actually serve her with a restraining order.

Other than that, I’ve acted on behalf of many people in need of emergency services by relaying their circumstances and location from the CB radio to County Dispatch in the capacity of a volunteer fire company.

59

I’ve called 3 times. The first was after seeing a really horrific car accident so I called them to get an ambulance sent out to the accident site.

The second was after a friend called me and told me she was driving around in downtown Dallas and she was going to commit suicide so I called and gave the operator her description and a description of her car so that they could be on the lookout for her in case she tried to drive off a bride or into a tree or something.

The third time I saw a huge fire blazing in this field next to the highway but apparently I was not the first person to call so they already sent out fire trucks a few minutes before I called.