Have you ever called 911?

[mom2kazkids]

I did twice for my dad, once when my mom and I came home from shopping and found him out of it, and then combative when I tried to take his blood sugar (he was a DB), the paramedics came and his blood sugar was 32. They started an IV, gave him some dextrose and then when it kicked in they left. I then supplemented him with a meal and we held off on the insulin for the night.

The other time was when he spiked a temp post chemo and was becoming delirious. Oncologist wanted him admitted to the hospital and there was no way that I was going to get him out of the house and to the hospital myself. I ended up beating him up to the oncology floor and started his admission papers for the RN's on that floor before the squad got him up there.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

A few times.

Burning truck in front of my house
Naked man walking in the middle of the street at night
Twice for car accidents on the freeway
Once when my 18 mo-old was choking on something (turned out to be a penny he had stuck in his mouth)

 

[Spoonful of Sugar]

I called when my neighbour's car caught fire. The fire trucks arrived three minutes later, but the car burned almost to the ground.

 

[JohnsPrincess]

I've called twice - each for a traffic accident. One was BAD...an SUV basically went UNDER the back of a semi, scraped the roof off, swerved to the right and hit a telephone pole. It was NOT nice. We got there seconds after it happened, called 911, and tried to keep them calm while the amubulance came.

The other - it was raining and a pickup hydroplaned into a telephone pole. He was going a BIT too fast and when the light turned red, that's when it happened. He hit the pole so hard that it cracked down the middle, pulled out a couple wires, etc. Hit his head, too. So again, we stopped, I called 911, we had him get out of the truck (the pole was leaning above it...plus all the wires...), and waited with him until the ambulance came.

Fun times...

Oh, I remember one more time! Lol. We were driving down the Tamiami Trail which is a two lane road between the West Coast and East Coast of Florida. Very Dangerous. We were at the tail end of a LONG line of cars (with a friend of ours right behind us) who were all behind a very. slow. moving. camper. All the cars ahead of us waited until it was clear, and passed. So then it was our turn. We waited until it was clear and started to pass. This was one of those HUGE campers... We got to about the middle of the camper and they decided to turn LEFT...sharply. No blinker (not that it mattered since we were NEXT to them), no slowing down, no nothing. My Dh swerved to the right and then to the left to stay on the road. We were Incredibly lucky and basically scraped up against the bike on the back of the camper and... well, you know the support poles on the back?? When not in use how they're supposed to be UP IN the camper? They'd left one about halfway down. That hooked into the front of our car right at the light...that that ripped up the entire side of our car. Nice.
Called 911. The old couple driving said they had put on a blinker. They had NOT. We drove that road a LOT (I had to go to Miami for drill) and basically - they were going to a camp ground. The sign for it was directly across the street from the street they needed to turn on. So, they saw the sign, realized they needed to turn - NOW - and turned. Idiots.

 

[Darsa]

I've called twice; once for a car accident right outside my house; I was stopped to turn left into my driveway, and another car stopped behind me. A third car came flying up, no slowing of any kind, and PLOWED into the car behind me. The 2nd car driver and I both got out to check on the third car, and the driver had a pretty scrambled face from hitting the airbag so hard. She mentioned to us that she'd been on her cellphone and didn't see us stopped.

And once when I worked at a preschool for kids with behavioral challenges. I was the office manager and one of the kids' nose started bleeding badly. Everything was done to try to stop it but it just kept going, poor baby He started getting woozy and disoriented, so we called 911. They were there SUPER fast and ended up taking him to the hospital. Later his mom and dad came back with a bouquet to thank us for helping their son; also mentioned that he's had trouble with nosebleeds all his life (something I wish they'd mentioned on the medical info sheets!)

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

I've had to call a few times. Once when I was about 17 and my mother was having breathing problems. Once when I was behind a semi, and he decided to plow over a street light (and several street signs). I was so scared, because it was a one lane road, and I had to drive over the electrical cords.... thankfully I wasn't fried!!!!
I've called the local police several times when I see the moron parents driving with their toddlers NOT in a car seat or even a seat belt.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Yes...I was with a friend who took some medication (not knowing she was allergic to it) and started swelling up and not being able to breathe right. She took some Benadryl before the paramedics got there and she was okay by the time they got there, but it was still scary.
I forgot that I also had to call them twice during my Freshman year in high school for fires in my back yard (one was a vehicle fire.)
And I've called the non-emergency police number when I saw kids who should have been in car seats and weren't.

 

[Aneille]

Just once for my son.

DH was out of the country for work and we had a major snowstorm during the late morning. We had been out early that morning for a hockey game and the roads were okay but not well cleared in certain towns. The kids and I shoveled and snowblowed ourselves out and went in for some popcorn and a movie.

While watching the movie my son climbed up on the stove and burned himself. The stove was still hot from the popcorn I had made.

I yelled to my oldest to get her boots back on and we headed out to the hospital which is usually a 10 minute ride tops. I had my oldest DD try to hold a wet cloth on his hand in the car but his screams became awful and the cars were driving so slow and the roads had gotten worse since I had been out earlier. I call 911 from my car and they had me pull over and wait for an ambulance. I am so glad I did. The EMT's were wonderful and even moved my car out of the parking lot when some guy told them he was going to have it towed because it was Private Property and he needed to plow. My oldest got to ride up front and even got to turn on the siren. I had the youngest in the back with my middle child. I can't believe we all fit in the ambulance.

On any other day I would have had tons of people to help me but on that particular day everyone was away. DS was fine and we went to Shriners for this burn over the next couple of weeks and there is no scar or any sign of injury.

 

[Serena]

Many times.
There are many accidents on my street. It's a main road and sometimes traffic can be pretty fast, not that it is supposed to be. People try to cross it and don't judge the speed very well. One time someone called 911 for my daughter, long story, she was hit by a car in front of me. I was sitting in the middle of the street with her, cars were blocking the traffic for me.
One time my dryer started smoking and I thought it was on fire, nope. Just smoking. The fireman unplugged it.

I had one incident that was getting really bad really fast. I was washing dishes and happen to see two people fighting in the middle of the street. I figured they were going to either get out of the road or get hit. Well, then I see one with a pipe looking thing and I called 911.
I'm glad I did. The traffic made them move into the yard, but I see cars arriving, people jumping out to join the fight, and other people walking towards the yard, carrying things. Thankfully the police showed up right then.

 

[sau418]

Many times, I used to work at an agency that served mentally challenged individuals who were medically involved. We would frequently have to call 911. I also had to call when we were hit head on by a truck when I was 6 months pregnant with DD1.

The worst though was when my old neighbors little boy almost drowned and I had to call 911, then do CPR because the parents were too rattled to know what to do.

 

[laurie31]

The first time I called was 22 years ago - my Dad fell in the driveway, just going to get the mail, and broke his hip. Actually, we didn't have 9-1-1 yet; I had to look up the number for the ambulance in the phone book.

I've called for a very drunk driver too. He was in the far left lane (driving the wrong way) on a 4 lane road. He did end up causing a 3 car collision, which we witnessed while on the phone with the police.

Recently, I called for a car accident I witnessed. The driver was unrestrained and I *saw* her get thrown across the front seat and hit the windshield on the passenger side. Her airbag didn't protect her since she wasn't thrown foreward, but sideways. She was unconscious and having seizures when I got to the car. She didn't do anything to cause the accident, btw. She was just driving along ahead of me, not speeding, not driving erratically, when suddenly her car just spun around and slammed into the guard rail. Really scary! The police think her axel just spontaneously broke.

Oddly enough, I usually call 911 a couple of times a month from work. The general public has an amazing number of medical crises! People have heart attacks, asthma attacks, strokes, falls, etc. all the time!

 

[Disnydad]

Once for my wife when she fell in the yard and broke her leg and a few times when coming across auto accidents. She's had to call 4 times for an ambulance for me.

 

[paintnolish]

Yep. XH cracked open his head (hammock stand broke and the metal hit him) and was feeling woozy. We weren't sure he'd make it to the hospital without passing out. I have also called on a few car accidents over the years.

 

[Tantor]

My DH was stung by 3 wasps (we did not know he was allergic) and went into anaphylaxis shock. My neighbour who is a fireman (captain) came home for a minute and had a radio on him heard the call and came running over. My Dh was going blue and he radioed the firetruck to bring in oxygen.
I had taken a first aid course just before it happened and knew I needed to keep him awake. That was very tough because he kept going in and out of conciousness.
We now have 2 epi-pens with us all the time!!
I have never been so afraid in my life since then.............

 

[MushyMushy]

We've never had to call for emergencies. DH has called a few times because of VERY dangerous/erratic drivers on the interstate. We've called for disturbances in the neighborhood or things of that nature.

Where I live, there IS no other number to call. If you try to call the local police directly, the call goes straight to the 911 call center anyway, so they tell you to just go ahead and call 911 instead of their 10-digit number. When they first started doing that, it was extremely difficult for us to get used to calling 911 for non emergencies.

 

[PaddingtonBear]

Good grief, too many times to count. Here are the ones I really remember
- My grandpa lived with us the last few months of his life. I walked in his room to say good bye as I was leaving for school one morning (I was 16) and he didn't respond. I called 911 then went to wake up my mom. He had passed during the night.
- My dad had a stroke, had to call 911.
- My mom had a heart attack, had to call 911.
- My mom had dangerously low blood sugar, had to call 911 (happened twice)
- Drunk driver plowed into an embankment, then turned his car and went perpendicular across 3 lanes of traffic on I94, nearly ran into three cars, then slammed into the side of an over pass, his car caught fire. We pulled over, called 911 and got him out of the car, since the fire was underneath and in back, close to the gas tank. He was a jerk, all bloody from the airbag and broken glass, tried to tell the cop that DH hit him. He was barely able to speak he was so wasted.
- Coming home from work one day a car a couple of carlenths ahead and one lane to the right of me suddenly make a sharp veer right and slammed into the barrier, then bounced back out into traffic, slammed right again into the barrier, this happend a couple of times. Pulled over and called 911. I think the driver had a heart attack.

 

[jessily]

I had to call 911 a few weeks ago. I was driving through the city around midnight when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a cyclist come over the curb, hit a drainage grate and fly over the handlebars, landing in the middle of the intersection. I pulled over and called 911 as I was running back down the block to check on her.

It was awful. She didn't have a helmet on and was completely knocked out. Bleeding a lot. Tangled up in her bike. Luckily another women drove by and stopped to help. The girl came to and we tried to keep her from moving until the ambulance got there.

That awful feeling in the pit of my stomach lasted for a few days. I hope it's a long long time until I have to call 911 again!

 

[worm761]

I have called a few times. Mostly from work though. I saw quite a few accidents with people pulling out to try to beat traffic. Had someone stop at our restaurant because her dad was having a heart attack in the car. Gave them aspirin and called 911. When I was younger and worked at a McDonald's someone tossed a cigarette out their car window at the menu board in the drive thru. The dry mulch around it caught on fire. You wouldn't believe the amount of people that just don't understand why they can't order in the drive thru when it is on fire. Most recently was a few years ago. Sister had a migraine and it caused a seizure. She was 28 years old at the time and had never had one before.

 

[Minnesota!]

Yes. First time because I happened to find some loaded pistols and a huge stash of drugs under my brother's bed.

Second time because my brother was a fugitive and his face was plastered all over the newspapers/media here and there was a man hunt of sorts for him. I was tipped off to where he was hiding so I called and turned him in.

I might have narced on him 2x....but he is a better man for it. He did time and once released has been clean and trouble free for just about 5 years now.

 

[suejai]

Yes I've had to call a couple of times.

The first time when DH and I were living in an apartment in a bit of a dodgy area in Victoria, BC. My brother was spending the night. Around midnight a car comes screeching into the driveway and a woman gets out of the car and starts screaming for someone in one the apartments. Her boyfriend grabs her and hauls her back into the car and starts hitting her, I can still hear the sound of his fist hitting her, it was horrible. I called 911 while DH and DB ran downstairs to help her. The cops got there before they made it down, thankfully. The guy was arrested.

The second time was for a fire set by an arsonist. Earlier in the day I had seen a man walking quickly down the sidewalk looking back frequently. I thought this was strange at the time and sure enough the fire dept showed up about 5 minutes later a block away to put out a dumpster fire. We went and spoke with the captain in charge to let him know about the guy I'd seen. Later that evening DH and I were just standing at the window of our bedroom chatting when the same guy comes riding by on a bike and throws something into a large newspaper recyling bin (we lived in a townhouse across the street from a strip mall at the time) DH ran down right away to try and follow the guy in our car. I called 911 and then when the fire dept came went out to talk to the same captain again. He jokingly asked if I had set the fire to get them out out again - I have to admit he was very cute and just my type too


I have also had to call the police dispatch number about noise complaints and once for some older teens who were drunk and lying in the middle of the road, and for some suspicious vehicles creeping down the alley at 2am.