When Emergency Services Are Needed

[Rohanna]

I also think its on the person to meet with staff and professors ahead of time to let them know how to handle an issue like that. It does not take much to meet with Prof Smith before the start of classes and say "I have a non life-threatening seizure disorder. Can I give you a sheet with my emergency contact information. If I don't come out of the siezure in x minutes, then I'll need emergency attention". If the professor is comfortable with that, everyone is hunky-dory. Otherwise, how on earth are people to know this is a chronic issue?

[Yvaine]

Evidently a student started seizing this morning so 911 was called and she was transported to the hospital. Her husband called a short while later absolutely infuriated that emergency services were called! He at one point mentioned that he was a two minute drive away from our campus, and feeling threatened staff again called 911, this time to summon the police out of concern for what this man may have intended to do.

I agree the husband was out of line, but he might be wondering why he wasn't called by the school at all. If a student has a medical emergency, I would think that their emergency contact should be notified immediately once proper medical personnel have been summoned.

That is a rather interesting assumption. Who said he was never called? He was, in fact, called once the immediate crisis had passed; that is, after 911 had been summoned and she had been taken away in the ambulance.

Seriously, where did you get the idea that he was never called? I never said that.

Its not an "interesting assumption" so much as an educated assessment. If the school called him after calling 911, then why was it in your OP he called the school? The logical assumption from the details in your OP was that his wife or the hospital called him, not the school.

It could just as easily have been that he couldn't get to the phone when first called, and then called back when he got a message from the school. Never being called is far, far from the only reasonable guess.

[gollymolly2]

Evidently a student started seizing this morning so 911 was called and she was transported to the hospital. Her husband called a short while later absolutely infuriated that emergency services were called! He at one point mentioned that he was a two minute drive away from our campus, and feeling threatened staff again called 911, this time to summon the police out of concern for what this man may have intended to do.

I agree the husband was out of line, but he might be wondering why he wasn't called by the school at all. If a student has a medical emergency, I would think that their emergency contact should be notified immediately once proper medical personnel have been summoned.

That is a rather interesting assumption. Who said he was never called? He was, in fact, called once the immediate crisis had passed; that is, after 911 had been summoned and she had been taken away in the ambulance.

Seriously, where did you get the idea that he was never called? I never said that.

Its not an "interesting assumption" so much as an educated assessment. If the school called him after calling 911, then why was it in your OP he called the school? The logical assumption from the details in your OP was that his wife or the hospital called him, not the school.

It could just as easily have been that he couldn't get to the phone when first called, and then called back when he got a message from the school. Never being called is far, far from the only reasonable guess.

It definitely wasnt the only reasonable guess - totally agree with you there. But it does seem like a pretty reasonable deduction based on the information in the OP. It seems like "interesting assumption" should be reserved for really inappropriate conclusions, not ones that are reasonable but incorrect.

[SingActDance]

Evidently a student started seizing this morning so 911 was called and she was transported to the hospital. Her husband called a short while later absolutely infuriated that emergency services were called! He at one point mentioned that he was a two minute drive away from our campus, and feeling threatened staff again called 911, this time to summon the police out of concern for what this man may have intended to do.

I agree the husband was out of line, but he might be wondering why he wasn't called by the school at all. If a student has a medical emergency, I would think that their emergency contact should be notified immediately once proper medical personnel have been summoned.

That is a rather interesting assumption. Who said he was never called? He was, in fact, called once the immediate crisis had passed; that is, after 911 had been summoned and she had been taken away in the ambulance.

Seriously, where did you get the idea that he was never called? I never said that.

Its not an "interesting assumption" so much as an educated assessment. If the school called him after calling 911, then why was it in your OP he called the school? The logical assumption from the details in your OP was that his wife or the hospital called him, not the school.

It could just as easily have been that he couldn't get to the phone when first called, and then called back when he got a message from the school. Never being called is far, far from the only reasonable guess.

Doesn't seem that far, far to me. Pretty much only three options. They didn't call, they did and left a message, or they did and got in touch with him. Since no mention was made of the school speaking to him before his call....

But I am done beating this dead horse. My only point was that I could understand his frustration IF he hadn't been notified by the school once 911 was called (I now know he had, and I apologized for the misunderstanding).

[NyaChan]

My Best friend/roommate of 4 years has a heart condition which causes her to collapse.  There is nothing a hospital can do for her, but getting her to take some water and lie down on her back will get her back to normal in time.  She made a point of disclosing that to me when we moved in together so that I would know that calling an ambulance was not necessary under those conditions.  Her previous roommates, having had the same disclosure, called 911 anyways as part of their campaign to have her removed from school (they wanted their friend to have her spot in the dorm) and cost her family a good bit of money and paperwork.  I too pass out and when I know it may be an issue, I tell at least one person that it might happen and explain why it isn't anything serious.

If someone has that sort of condition where they know someone would reasonably call an ambulance but they have no need for the ambulance, it is on them to let people know how to react. 

That said, I would be terrified and scarred if something happened, I didn't call the ambulance on their instruction, and it turned out that there was something seriously wrong which I could have prevented.

[Rohanna]

http://shop.epilepsysociety.org.uk/product/i-have-epilepsy-id-card/44800/

That's an example of something like the epilepsy cards I have seen.

[HoneyBee42]

I've had all sorts of varied experiences for myself and close family.

Situation 1)  My dad was riding his bike, got some loose "chatter" (the blacktop fill that wasn't packed in the hole)  that caused his rear tire to skid while he was headed downhill.  Because his front brake held, he went end over end, first point of impact the top of his (helmeted) head.  Some passerby saw and phoned 911.  Police arrived and he was unconscious on the roadside, call went out for "next available ambulance".  He didn't regain consciousness until he was at the ER, probably 20 minutes or so from the original time that he was injured.

Insurance tried to avoid paying because they said the ambulance was the "out of network" one.  Well, my parents filed an appeal--turns out there was no "in network" ambulance, so insurance paid up.

Situation 2)  My mom had a first time grand mal seizure.  A couple freak elements made this even more serious.  She'd been sitting at high table (the sort that has barstool height chairs) and whacked herself on the bridge of the nose on the table (or chair) on the way down, giving herself a severe nosebleed.  Then her forehead caught under the toe-kick of the cabinet, so that her neck was in the position that all the blood was pouring into her lungs.  Of course my dad called 911 rather than drive her (about a 15 minute drive from the house).

Situation 3)  Oldest son passed out somewhere that had my work contact information.  They told me the ambulance had been called, I requested that he be brought to the hospital that is my employer.  The request was honored. 

Situation 4)  Ex (then still my husband) had a heart attack.  911 was called (I made him talk on the phone because I know dispatchers can glean info talking directly rather than talk to me, have me ask him questions, then relay the answers back to the dispatcher).  They asked *me* which hospital, but said that they thought it should be hospital A or hospital B as hospital C wasn't the best for cardiac.

I also know that, when I worked in my prior job (I've been given new duties), I worked with financial assistance applications.  The local ambulance company would honor our financial assistance (i.e., if someone qualified for 100% assistance, the ambulance would write off their charges; if they qualified for 20% reduction, the ambulance would do likewise).

On the other hand, I've pretty much always gone by private transport, but my situations were less serious.  And triage really doesn't care how people arrived--they evaluate based on the particulars of the situation (although I will say that there are few things scarier than hearing people being paged to come to the ER "stat" when it's about *you* as the patient).  In that particular case (really horrific miscarriage with major hemorrhage), I even bumped the stabbing victim the police had brought in just before me, even though I'd walked in thinking I was just fine (until I stood up from triage and there was a 3' diameter puddle of blood at my feet). 

In the end, unless you *know* the situation is something that isn't a true emergency *and* know how to handle the situation, I think that it is the right decision to call the EMTs.  I wouldn't want to live with myself if I'd just sloughed it off because "well, it's not really that serious" and I was wrong--I don't see anything in the OP that suggests that the people who called 911 knew that the student had an existing seizure disorder beforehand. 

[Zenith]

I'm amazed that it costs so much for emergency medical care and thankful that we have an NHS here.

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm very grateful medical care is free here.

Ambulance rides are not free in Australia unless you have a select type of *health care card or pay separately for cover. A family near me had their son have an accident with a bottle of olive oil and a BBQ and that ambulance ride cost 35 thousand dollars. I had to call an ambulance for myself earlier this year and the 2 block ride was 1500 but luckily I had purchased ambulance cover so it was all good. 30-50 bucks a year is worth the investment.

*The health care card only covers 1 ambulance ride to an emergency department. If you need to be transferred to another hospital you will not be covered and will have to pay. I learned this chatting with the operator while waiting to get my bill settled so if you live in a small town with a tiny emergency department and have the main Hospital 50km away, get cover. I never knew this and my mum uses this card so I told her and boy, she was surprised and cya'd.

ETA: Just chatting with a friend and some health insurance ambulance cover is the same as above and won't cover ambulance transfers or second ambulance/lifeflight transport. Basically, check everything for coverage before you need it. Friend nearly got dinged by that one but her Dad had given her 3 year ambulance cover as a gift last year so she was covered.

[Katana_Geldar]

Not sure if this has been brought up, but with some places it's their policy to call the ambulance as it saves them from any potential liability lawsuits.

[Rohanna]

Makes me less annoyed that ambulance rides are only 45$ here !

[SingActDance]

Makes me less annoyed that ambulance rides are only 45$ here !

Where do you live? I'm packing now.

[Nikko-chan]

Makes me less annoyed that ambulance rides are only 45$ here !

Where do you live? I'm packing now.

So am I!

[Twik]

Canada, presumably. I only had to pay that when I went to hospital with chest pains.

[gollymolly2]

I'm amazed that it costs so much for emergency medical care and thankful that we have an NHS here.

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm very grateful medical care is free here.

Ambulance rides are not free in Australia unless you have a select type of *health care card or pay separately for cover. A family near me had their son have an accident with a bottle of olive oil and a BBQ and that ambulance ride cost 35 thousand dollars. I had to call an ambulance for myself earlier this year and the 2 block ride was 1500 but luckily I had purchased ambulance cover so it was all good. 30-50 bucks a year is worth the investment.

*The health care card only covers 1 ambulance ride to an emergency department. If you need to be transferred to another hospital you will not be covered and will have to pay. I learned this chatting with the operator while waiting to get my bill settled so if you live in a small town with a tiny emergency department and have the main Hospital 50km away, get cover. I never knew this and my mum uses this card so I told her and boy, she was surprised and cya'd.

ETA: Just chatting with a friend and some health insurance ambulance cover is the same as above and won't cover ambulance transfers or second ambulance/lifeflight transport. Basically, check everything for coverage before you need it. Friend nearly got dinged by that one but her Dad had given her 3 year ambulance cover as a gift last year so she was covered.

$35000? Is that a typo?

[BeagleMommy]

At my university, student emergency information is kept in two places.  Student Health and in the Resident Assistant office of each dorm.  We are always instructed to call 911 first and then call Student Health to have them call emergency contacts.  Employee emergency contacts are kept in personnel and in each office.  Same procedure applies - 911 first; followed by emergency contact.

I also carry a card in my wallet listing my diabetes, DH's contact info and my doctor's info and I wear a medical alert bracelet.