Sure, if someone is having a suspected heart attack, breathing difficulties or has been involved in an accident where injuries are unknown but potentially serious, an ambulance would be the first response of course.
But what about non-life threatening complaints? When is it kosher to call an ambulance?
*I live alone, and yesterday suffered a slipped disc after weeks of fairly severe back issues anyway. Initially I couldn’t walk at all, but eventually managed to get to my car and to a doc who prescribed some decent painkillers and diazepam to relax the associated spasms. Spent the day in a chair either blissed out on the drugs, or crying like a baby when I had to move. Went to bed exhausted at 8.00pm.
Waking at 2.30am for a desperate pee-visit, I could not get out of bed. The pain was fucking excruciating, and no matter how hard I gritted my teeth and tried to breathe through the agony, it wasn’t gonna happen any time soon. Eventually I managed to (inch by inch, literally) get onto my belly, slide off the bed to the floor whereupon I crawled to the kitchen and hauled myself upright by hanging onto tables and chairs for support. First thing was swallowing lots of drugs, then downing two coffees…the whole process from waking to coffee took me one hour, 18 minutes and lots and lots of howling like a stuck pig.
During that time I was tempted to ring an ambulance to help me get immediate pain relief…but the wuss in me felt undeserving because I wasn’t actually dying or anything. I’ve never needed to call an ambo before, and am curious what their reaction would be to being heeded for such events.
Thoughts?
(It’s 4.30 am now, I’m fucked from all the energy expended (and the drugs are kicking in too) but there is NO WAY IN HELL I am going to get horizontal again in a hurry. Damn that was scary!) :eek:
My friend recently woke up in much pain, as you described. She has one leg, and was upstairs, so it would have been extra hard for her to drag herself to the car to get to a hospital. Her daughter was there, but again, with one leg, too hard to get downstairs. Thus, an ambulance was called, and it took about six medics to carry her downstairs using some sort of blanket to hold her.
If I had been with you, I would have called you an ambulance. And you would have begged me not to, but secretly been relieved that they were there to help. Now, if they had gotten there and you refused transport, they wouldn’t have taken you anywhere because it’s your right to refuse, but if you’re like most people, you wouldn’t refuse once they were there because, as you said, you secretly thought maybe you should. Most of us just need validation that we’re not being a wuss. So here: you weren’t being a wuss. <3
The problem with pain like that is that it’s almost impossible to know if there’s something more serious going on, because your body is overwhelmed with owfuckingOW signals. So maybe it’s your regular pain, or maybe on top of the regular back pain you now have pancreatitis or a kidney stone or an aneurism. Obviously, if you’re feeling better today, it wasn’t any of those things, but last night you didn’t know that. I can’t tell at home, I want you somewhere with someone with the tools to find out. If you can walk to the car, then let’s take the car. But if you can only slide on your belly, it’s much safer for both you and I to call the guys with the stretcher and bulgy muscles to come carry you.
When should you call an ambulance? In an emergency, or when in a situation that might be an emergency and an ambulance is the safest way to transport someone without hurting them or yourself.
I’ve been in this type of situation with my back - you have my sympathies. Couldn’t move around to pee either. Had my boyfriend help out with a pan. But would only have called an ambulance if no one else was at hand to help. I did know what it was, though, which makes all the difference.
I was alone, without an operating vehicle when my other daughter, as a toddler, fell and got a bad cut on her forehead.
My husband was away on a trip and his mother called me early in the morning saying something about pain on her left side and arm. She was around 90 yo at the time. It turned out she was actually all bruised up because her blood pressure meds were too high. But I couldn’t tell that over the phone. The EMTs (and police) questioned her seriously about whether anyone had hit her, determined that she merely needed to see her doctor about adjusting the dosage of one of her meds.
I would also have preferred to call an ambulance in a couple of other situations but my husband insisted on just driving. About a month ago I had a nosebleed that we couldn’t stop. He insisted on just getting in the car – at 7 AM on a Monday morning. As we stewed in the rush hour traffic I kept thinking it was too bad we didn’t have a siren to turn on and get through it. And a knowledgeable person to assist instead of sitting there with a towel that was rapidly saturated with blood.
They would have tried the doors, and if she couldn’t belly wiggle to the door and unlock it, they’d break something to get in. Usually a small window in the door, if there is one, but the door itself if they have to. Then they have one of the team or a cop stay at the home until the entrance can be secured again. IME, anyhow.
My backdoor is generally open. I only lock it (mostly) when I am out for the whole day. When I’m home, it’s open. Yes, slack I know. Might have come in handy this morning though.
I’m mobile again now…the drugs have bee a godsend I tell ya, as has being vertical for a few hours. If I decide to actually go to bed tonight, the pills and some water are going with me. Either that, or I’m going to call the doc today to see whether there’s anything longer-acting that might see me through until morning. If I can’t get out of bed TOMORROW, I’m definitely going to call an ambulance.
…Oh, and make sure I wear jammies to bed rather than nekkid as I usually am. Don’t want to have to shock the poor paramedics into heart failure!
My first asthma attack basically had me in serious respiratory distress (I couldn’t really breathe) in the middle of the night. I live alone. I contemplated calling the ambulance. Didn’t because I was afraid I’d be admitted and then who would feed the animals and take the dogs out?
Somehow, I managed to get some air, calmed down, and went back to sleep. Got up the next morning, got in to the doctor, and that’s how I found out I have asthma. Next time, I would call. I had no idea what a dangerous spot I was in.
The one time I have been bad off enough to need an ambulance, I was incapable of doing so.
I injured both my hands to the point where I couldn’t work my fingers to even get my phone out, much less make a call, in a public parking lot and ended up having a drunk person that stopped to help drive me to the ER.
Seeing my bones and tendons seems to have completely erased my judgement to the point where I let a drunk stranger drive my car.
Local protocols vary, but a complaint of back pain would warrant a few more questions on the part of the ambulance dispatcher. The response protocol for the ambulance would depend upon your age and other symptoms.
Age >50
Back pain with shortness of breath
Back pain with fainting/near fainting
Back pain with flank pain
Any of those factors gets the full response (lights & sirens, running traffic lights) around here.
If you just have chronic back pain and can’t get yourself to the hospital then we would still dispatch the ambulance but they may have a lower response level (no lights/siren, obeying all traffic laws).
Your best option is to call for a locum doctor to come to your house. If you were to call for an ambulance (in Melbourne) you will most likely have to speak to a call taker then, a paramedic or a nurse and they will organise a locum for you.
A colleague of mine suffered a stroke. He was laid out on the floor and could not get up. He somehow dragged himself to a phone and called 911. Who came but could not get in. Somehow they got hold of his ex, who had a key and let them in. I gather that they were still on good terms. But he was right to push the panic button. Last I saw him, he got around pretty well with a cane.
Another colleague told me about his SIL, who lived in an apartment above him and his wife. She weighed about 400 lb and was in her 80s. Occasionally, she fell down and could not get off the floor and she would call 911 just to lift her up. Which they did. Then they wanted to take her to a hospital. Which she refused and they left. I don’t know if she is still alive.
I DID call for a locum actually (at 7.30 am), but they’d ‘finished’ for the night and was told they weren’t taking new appointments until 4.00 pm that afternoon. :rolleyes:
Anyways, I ended up in A & E later in the morning (daughter drove me thank OG) and spent the afternoon prone on a trolley full of the best drugs I’ve ever had (between nice hallucinations and nodding off, I didn’t care that I was in pain.) Sent me home @ 7pm with more happy pills, special crutch thingies and a toilet booster (how embarrassment).
Took two of the wonder pills (endone) a couple of valium, went to bed and I’m fine now. Well, not fine, but I got out of bed! And the pain level today is just panadol level. kam is one helluva happy camper today.
A locum, literally, is a place-holder, or a substitute. Someone doing the job that someone else usually does for you.
In context, it’s a doctor (or maybe Nurse Practitioner or Physician’s Assistant) who makes house calls as needed, but doesn’t always keep a steady roster of patients and do follow ups.
We don’t have those in most of the US. (We have home physicians for homebound patients, but they return regularly to do follow up; they’re people’s primary care providers.) For some reason, I always forget that **kambuckta **is an Australian. :smack: Had I recalled that, yeah, I would have gone with a locum instead of an ambulance. The locum can decide if an ambulance is warranted.
I got a 1:30 AM phone call a few days ago (eek!) from my mom telling me that my dad had fallen and, unusually, was not able to haul himself up. I went over there and my husband helped him up. He was weird and medicated.
In retrospect, I really wish she’d called 911, but then I suppose she probably fought him tooth and nail to let her call us.
Next time, sleep in a chair, recliner would be best. It is easier to get up from a mostly sitting position than from a flat position with a hosed back, I have too many years experience with back pain to sleep on a bed if I am hosed up like you are [acute pain-wise, chromic pain I just deal with]
Now, if they had gotten there and you refused transport, they wouldn’t have taken you anywhere because it’s your right to refuse, but if you’re like most people, you wouldn’t refuse once they were there because, as you said, you secretly thought maybe you should. Most of us just need validation that we’re not being a wuss. So here: you weren’t being a wuss. <3
