When my daughter fell down the basement stairs, and couldn’t feel her legs or move them.
Scared the hell out of us.
I was in a department store last Christmas and a woman asked me something unintelligble - then fell down and had a grand mal seizure. Paramedics came pretty quickly and she was fine.
–tygre
…But she was okay, though, right? Finish the story!
Called 911 when my first husband tackled my daughter’s boyfriend in a grocery store parking lot, after the kid had given her a black eye. If the kid had been older, hubby would have done more than just take him down and hold on to him.
Called two other times, when hubby was sick and couldn’t breathe.
I live in a small town, and we have volunteer EMTs. They’re absolutely wonderful. Any Doper EMTs? You’re wonderful. Shoot – medical/fire/police people in general are pretty special.
When I was about nine, my mom called 911 to report a fire in the apartment complex on the top of the ridge behind our street. Turned out to be a four alarm fire.
The year after I graduated from college, I had a gallbladder attack. I was with a friend in Dallas, and all of a sudden, I started getting deep stabbing pains just below my sternum. Then, my diaphragm locked up and I could breathe. She pulled over, ran inside a chicken place and called 911. The ambulance came and I was still having trouble breathing, so they put an oxygen mask on me and brought me in. Turned out that I’d probably passed a gallstone, which is really no fun at all.
Third time, my friend from the previous occasion and I were roomies. We were kicking back at the apartment complex pool late one evening, when out of nowhere, this guy starts screaming at a woman there, throwing her around and beating on her. “Give me my money, bitch!” I yelled at him that I was going to call the cops, then we vamoosed, and I dialed 911 and reported it. Don’t know if anything came of it.
My story is actually funny, sort of.
I was working on a home built rocket-launcher (hey, who hasn’t?) and I was to the first test fire phase. So I loaded 'er up and let her rip. In the back yard.
The missile turned out not to be appropriately balanced, so it flew around like a demented firework, and eventually landed right across the wooden fence, in my neighbor’s yard. In a pile of dry dead wood.
I notice the fire, and jumped over the fence (it was tall too, at least 6ft, I’m not sure how I made it over). I stomped out a good bit of the blaze, but it had already grown too large. So I leaped over the fence again, and ran inside to have my brother call the fire department.
By the time they arrived, I had realised that hosing it down would be a good idea, so I had quite a bit of it under control. Still, I ended up burning down a few yards of fence and the neighbor’s shed.
The official story was that I had unwisely launched a model rocket (close enough), so I paid for the damages. I also singed my hair when I was stomping out the fire, so I was quite grey for a while.
Ah, memories.
I was housesitting in a basement apartment. Owner of house above it has told me she’s away for the weekend and has set her burglar alarm. I awaken at 1:30 a.m. to the sound of an alarm going off. I can’t quite tell where it’s coming from,(and I’m not about to open the door and check!) but better to be safe than sorry so I call 911. They disconnect me, which would have been aggravating had I been bleeding to death. I call back and they send the police over. Turns out it was a car alarm in front of the house.
Growing up, I never called 911. But we had the fire dept. number right on the phone because the local pyromaniacs loved to set fire to the hill behind our house. The hill’s on fire again - we probably should leave since there’s ashes falling in the back yard. Ah, the memories of childhood.
I’ve only called 911 once. I was going through a divorce, and living in an apartment complex with my mom. A guy in the building right across from us was beating on his SO. Turns out, six or seven people in the complex had called as well.
I’ve had 911 called for me a number of times, due to the fact that I have epilepsy, and I’ve had a few seizures in public. Although I do understand why they insist on taking me to the hospital, it still sucks. I just want to go home & go to sleep. As a result of my frequent dealings with EMT’s, though, I have developed a very deep admiration for them. When I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts, we had a written policy that stated that we would give free coffee & donuts to on-duty police officers. I always extended that offer to EMT’s. My boss questioned me about it once, and I told him why I did it. He just smiled & said “Okay, I can live with that!”
The first time was when our next door neighbors were selling their house. It was already empty, and two neighborhood kids decided it needed some painting. They crawled in the doggie door, opened the garage door, so that I could plainly see them painting swear words on the inside wall.
The last time, I was short of breath and sweating, having tremendous chest pains. I was getting scared that I might be having a heart attack and my youngest son was the only one home with me (he gets scared VERY easily) I called 911 then. They were fantastic, no heart attack, I was given Tums, VERY embarrassing! I took them banana bread to the station house two days later to say, ‘Thanks for not rubbing in the fact that it was a horrific GAS attack rather than my heart’, and they were SO sweet.
Well, a few years ago, when I was a real punk, my friend and I wanted new hubcaps (!!!) for our cars, so we waited until it was dark out. After it got nice and late, we went to the used car place down the road and stole a box. We took it to the nearest parking lot to see what we got. It was a box of center caps. No good. So we ditched it on the side of the road somewhere. We still had some time left, so we went and snagged another box. This one had hubcaps, but only three of each kind! ARrrgh! We went to ditch this somewhere else, but on the way, we met the local crew of druggies and dudes getting drunk on a dirt road. We bummed the box off on them, and as we were leaving, they set it on fire. We left to go home, and on the way home, as I passed the road, we saw a huge fire. They had let the fire get out of control, and then ran.
So I picked friend back up and we called 911 to put it out.
The next time, dad and I were outside one day late last summer. We live at the top of a steep hill. Suddenly, an old, rusty Chevy Luv flew by, and down the hill. We hear a bit of a squeal, and a ::crunch:: thud thud thud. Dad races to the top of the hill as I run inside and call 911. When I get back outside, three drunk, but otherwise fine, men are trying to convince my dad to help them right their truck. He put them off long enough for the cops to show up and arrest them.
–Tim
Well, I get to enjoy calling 911 about 4-5 times a week at my job in a hospital. (Fire alarms, drunks on property, idiots with guns, etc.) But the only two times I have had to call 911 for non-work problems weren’t for me.
The first was when I had passed two vehicles stopped (possible wreck) on a really dark, twisy section of road on my way home. I called 911 when I got home to report it. (I was concerned with two cars being stopped on a two lane road in total darkness right past a sharp curve in the road.) I picked up the phone at home (about 2 miles from the scene and in the same town) and dialed 911.
Well, the people couldn’t find the street on their map. After about 10 minutes of looking, they said, “Oh, that’s in Jonesborough!” (The town I am calling from.) They tell me I should have called them. I was always under the impression that when I picked up the phone and called 911, it would just connect me with the 911 that could help me! I mean, if I am dying and I call 911 from my house, shouldn’t I get the 911 for my area? Anyway, after I tried explaining this concept to these people for another 10 minutes, they agree that they will just go ahead and call the police in Jonesborough for me!!!
The second time, my parent’s neighbors were having a very vocal (and physical) fight outside at about 2am. My mother was afraid to call 911 because she didn’t want my neighbor to know that she had called! I tried to explain to her that the cops don’t show up and say, “That lady in that house over there called us. What seems to be the problem?” when both parties in the altercation are bleeding and screaming at each other! I called 911 over my mother’s protests and it’s a good thing too because right after I got off the phone with the dispatcher, the man started to try to run over his wife with his truck. He was chasing her down the street in his big 4X4 when the cops got there!
I called 911 on a client at an animal hospital I used to work with. The lady was a long time client, and we knew she was mentally disturbed. The lady called in regards to some medication she needed to pick up for her cat. during the conversation, she became increasingly agitated, and soon she was saying that she was going to kill herself. As soon as she hung up the phone I called 911 and the police went out there. The cops called me back later to tell me that the lady had not caused herself any harm, but she was still talking crazy so they took her to the hospital. They were also nice enough to place several bowls of food and water down for her cats.
I call 911 from work with such frequency
they are in my speed dial. I work for a
firm that manages several buildings they
rent to various low lifes. Drunks and
druggies coming into the office and raising
hell are a fact of life. Especially on the
first of the month. I just hit the button
and tell them to come on down.
We’re also two blocks from a major intersection.
When I hear a crash, I hit the button. The best
was when a woman driving a black van she had
just driven off the lot got broadsided. She
was really hopping.
Across the street is a huge auto repair shop.
Sometimes things got hot over there, and we
end up hitting the button. One woman got so
upset that she grabbed a hammer, hit all the
windows out of a car and then attacked the cops!
I’ve never had to call 911 myself.
My son called it twice.
Once at grandmom’s house. “I was just playing, Daddy,” really didn’t cut it with two cops traipsing through my ex-mother-in-law’s house.
The second was over my best friend’s house. We were visiting for the weekend. He’d snuck out of his bedroom, headed downstairs with my buddy’s two girls, dialed 911 and left the receiver off the hook.
Being awakened by the police at 0730 Saturday morning is not the way Daddy wants to start his day.
I once called 911
just to see if it worked from Australia
Just 2 weeks ago I had to call 911 in the middle of the night when a friend of mine went into a diabetic seizure. We were vacationing at Lake Norris, Tennessee. Sue’s daughter heard her gurgling and tried to wake her up. Sue wouldn’t and so she ran in and got her uncle. He was pretty useless, doing nothing much but running through the house screaming, “Call 911!! Sue’s not breathing! We may have to give her a tracheotomy!” That woke me up and I called 911.
The kindly operator calmly took the information, then asked sweetly if we could run her to the hospital since the ambulance would be “awall.”
Luckily Sue’s bro-in-law had the presence of mind to find her emergency insulin kit and give her a shot. Then he dripped Capri Sun down her throat. In about twenty minutes she came out of it and was able to test her blood and self medicate herself.
The ambulance never did arrive. Moral of the story: If you’re vacation in East Podunk, it’s best to educate yourself where the nearest hospital is and be prepared to drive the person to the hospital yourself. If it had been a heart attack, the guy would have been dead.
I have never called it. I’d have to all with a TTY. I don’t know if our Calif 911 would take a TTY call & its illegal to even call them & find out. sigh.
I’ve never had to call 911, but I’ve had it called for me once. I was 18, and woke up in the middle of the night with my heart POUNDING. I took my pulse, and found out that my heart was beating somewhere around 165 bpm. Mind you, I had just gotten up in the middle of the night like this. So I try to go to the bathroom, and by the time I get there, I’m greying out. Walking is not an option. I wait about five minutes with no change, and crawl to my aunt’s bedroom. She’s out like a light, and manages to mumble “Call your grandmother” before rolling over and going back to sleep. My grandmother is a nurse, and lived mere blocks away. So I called her, and she came over. She took my pulse and called 911. The medics came about 5 minutes later, checked my blood sugar (normal) and sat there for about 5 more minutes debating whether or not to take me in. Somehow, my heart rate dropped to about 120, which is still somewhat elevated but not enough to worry about. I ended up not going into the hospital that night, and whatever happened to me never happened again. I’m still not sure why it happened in the first place, or what it was.
I called once, when a car flipped at the foot of a bridge. Never did find out if they were okay or not.
Now this…
I gotta ask about. Cut himself on a balloon?!?
I have only had to call once fortunately. It was for my Dad. He was having a hard time breathing and was squirming as if he was in pain, though he denied it. I called 911 and gave the dispatcher all the information she needed. About 3-4 minutes later the ambulance crew got there and took him to the hospital. It turned out to be a fairly massive heart attack, but the doctor said we caught it very early and there was no permanent damage. That was about 2 and a half years ago and my Dad is fine now.