Have you ever called 911?

[mama4]

January of 2008, dd was 18 mths and had been wheezing for most of the day. The ped had her on albuterol because we thought she may be developing asthma. By dinnertime, I was on the phone with pediactric after-hours because she was not getting better. While I was on the phone with a nurse, my dh was cradling her in his arms trying to calm her because she started getting upset. She was crying and pushing us away and then she suddenly got much worse. She had very labored breathing and her lips were starting to turn blue. I told the nurse.. or I guess she really just heard us getting panicky and she yelled at me to put the phone to Grace so she could hear her breathing. When I did she told me to call 911 immediately. Things had gone from "concerning" to a real emergency in a matter of seconds.
It's a long story but just to sum it up a bit, after hours in the ER, a slew of bewildered Drs, me in hysterics and my normally calm & rational husband very nearly losing his marbles, the leading Ped ER Dr came and informed us that our daughter had a congenital defect called CDH (congenintal diaphragmatic hernia) which is a hole in her diaphram. Her stomach had moved through the hole and into her chest cavity. Her lungs were being compressed by her stomach and she couldn't breathe. At this point my daughter had been intubated and they had scans that showed "something on her lungs" so when we finally heard what the actual issue was, as horrible as it seemed, we were somewhat relieved because they told us it could be treated. It wasn't a tumor or internal bleeding which is all we could think of. The hole had been there since birth and her stomach could be put back in place and the hole repaired. She could be fixed. AND we had one of the leading pediatric surgeons who SPECIALIZES in babies with CDH in our very own hospital. We were so lucky in so many ways because she had a right sided CDH so her liver blocked the hole and kept everything in place. That's why her lungs developed properly. If she'd had it on the left side- as most babies do- her lungs wouldn't have developed and she very likely would've died within weeks of her birth. 50% of babies born with CDH do not survive and out of the ones that DO survive, many have long term problems ranging from GERD to brain damage.
My daughter didn't start crawling until 12 mths of age (she was receiving OP at the time her CDH was discovered) and she started walking a week after her surgery (while she was in the hospital no less!) She also has a speech delay. She is now in speech therapy and doing great. So we are very lucky. Sorry such a long story but just wanted to share. Don't ever hesitate to call them if you think you need help. I shudder to think what could've happened if I'd given my daughter albuterol and put her in bed for the night. Probably wouldn't have happened bacause I'm such worrywart but if her symptoms had seemed a little better maybe? Maybe I'd plan to take her back to the ped in the morning? Ugh.. it truly is frightening.
I've been a mom for 18 years and that was the first time I'd ever called 911 but it saved my daughter's life.

 

[janey99]

I called when DS1 was 5 months old and stopped breathing - he was sitting on my lap facing out and when I repositioned him I saw he was blue. I called 911 and they had be perform mouth to mouth on him while I waited. I revived him but he stopped breathing again after the doctor arrived, and they had to revive him again.

He was admitted to the hospital and they did all sorts of heart monitoring and tests, but they never figured out what happened and it never happened again - he is 11 now.

Later I realized I went to the hospital in the ambulance in my giant sleep T-shirt and no shorts!

Jane

Edited to add - I also called 911 in law school when a drug deal went bad in front of my apartment and a guy got shot to death. The paramedics ripped open his shirt to try to help him, and discovered he had cocaine taped all over his torso. For the next week, all these people kept driving by to gawk at the chalk outline of his body and the shell casings on the street. Gotta love Fourth and Girard in Philly!

 

[WhateverLolaWants]

I've called 911 a couple of times. Once to report a drunk driver when I was coming home one night. Another time my mom and I had to call 911 because a truck driver was literally trying to run us off the road when we were driving home from Disney. (Ever seen the movie Joyride? Yeah, that was us.)

 

[MIGrandma]

Yes, I have called 9-1-1 once.

It was when our smoke alarm went off at 3:00 in the morning, woke up to a burning electrical smell in the house. I panicked, and wanted to call right away but DH said no, let me look around first. I just envisioned a wire burning in the wall and all of a sudden the house would be gone, before the firetrucks could get here as we are a 15-minute drive out of town.

He finally let me call, when he couldn't find the source, and the firemen couldn't find the source for quite awhile either.

I had gotten my cat, put her in the carrier and in my car, and had grabbed lots of personal stuff and photos, etc. and then backed the car out of the garage, way far away in case the house did go.

The firemen finally had to call another dept. to get someone with a thermal imaging machine out here and they eventually found it was the compressor on our refrigerator!!

It was kind of embarrassing and we did apologize to them, but they all said no, we did the right thing.

 

[georgina]

We've never had to call for emergencies.

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.

Same here. 911 is the number to call police for any reason, and I agree it is hard to get used to. I feel like I am abusing the system. But then the local police come to our parent group meetings and tell us to call if we see anything suspicious in the neighborhood; they would rather come and not be needed than not get the call.

 

[momrek06]

Just a few times.

1x when my house caught on fire...FD was there in seconds with sooooo many trucks. They got that fire out so quickly the damage was minimal. (A faulty thermostat on the wall in my living room went up in flames)

1x when there was a horrible car accident in front of my home. (Thankfully, everyone was fine, injured badly but ok in time.)

 

[locolala]

I've had to call a couple of times. I remember being 12 and home alone.. and seeing someone in my yard. My two dogs were growling, all the hair on their backs standing up and everything. I called 911 and went to a room with no windows in case someone was looking in. The cops didn't find anyone, but they found footprints and 2 cigarette butts outside, and nodbody in my family smoked. A couple of years ago, I was home at my dads house, he was on vacation. My dog was freaking out, so I looked outside. There was a man standing outside the fence looking towards the house. I grabbed my pistol and called 911. I cracked a 2nd story window, and yelled out "You are trespassing on private property. The police have been called. I have a loaded gun, you have been warned." The police found him farther up the street, he had a BAC of .15, an 8 inch knife on him, and he was a registered violent sex offender.

 

[dislal]

Yes just this year when I caught my yard on fire

Probably the single most embarassing thing in my life.

 

[Arielle22]

ETA - I've also called *SP twice - the cell phone equivalent of 911 in MA - that goes to the state police so they can tranfer you to the correct 911 locale for traffic emergencies. Once for a traffic accident where a car hit a motorcyclist (very scary) and another time when a guy was driving southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 1 right in front of Gillette Stadium. At the time the road was not divided.

I work for 7 years a couple of miles down on Rt 1. Even with it divided it was still tough with cars pulling out into traffic going 50. We saw many accidents when someone pulled out and got hit.

I once called the state police to report a brown Ferrari with a drunk driver on a Sunday morning. The dispatcher was asking if we got the license plate. I told her no but I didn't see any other Ferrari's swerving! DH could actually see the open container between the driver's legs as he passed us.

The scariest time I ever had to call 911 was when my mom fell in my driveway. She was dying of cancer and used a walker. I was taking my dds (who were young) into the house and was going back for her. Mom decided to try and get out herself. She fell backwards and I was afraid she had serious injuries. So the fire dept came and helped her up. Luckily she was ok.

 

[luvsJack]

Twice, once my house was on fire and the other when my child care center was broken into.

Second time I probably should have used the non-emergency number; but I had just bought groceries for the center and me and dd (3 at the time) walked into the dark building. When I saw the window busted out it took a minute for my mind to accept what I was seeing and then it scared me. I was afraid they might still be in there and I was alone with dd. We high-tailed it out and started driving away while I called 911.

 

[1stluvispooh]

I've called a couple of times. Once when my parents house was on fire. The power lines shorted out and started a very small fire in the attic. Thank you bikers going by. I also had to call when my 2 year old left the house and wasn't anywhere in the yard! They found her 2 streets over. Never left the door unlocked again.

 

[Danauk]

I have a few times. Twice when I saw a bad car accident and once when I saw a child fall off his bike into the road and hit a car. Then I had to call the firebrigade 5 or 6 times at work. There used to be waste land behind the school I work in and older kids would set fire to the dry grass.

 

[~disneydiva~]

I've had to call a couple of times. I remember being 12 and home alone.. and seeing someone in my yard. My two dogs were growling, all the hair on their backs standing up and everything. I called 911 and went to a room with no windows in case someone was looking in. The cops didn't find anyone, but they found footprints and 2 cigarette butts outside, and nodbody in my family smoked. A couple of years ago, I was home at my dads house, he was on vacation. My dog was freaking out, so I looked outside. There was a man standing outside the fence looking towards the house. I grabbed my pistol and called 911. I cracked a 2nd story window, and yelled out "You are trespassing on private property. The police have been called. I have a loaded gun, you have been warned." The police found him farther up the street, he had a BAC of .15, an 8 inch knife on him, and he was a registered violent sex offender.

I've called three times that I can think of. Two for car wrecks (one was right outside of our apartment and the other we heard..the witnesses left the scene) the third time I called was around 4:30 in the afternoon. I was at a stop light and I glanced at the car next to me just as he picked up a bottle of rum to drink. I called and gave the description of the car, the licences plate, and the area he was going.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Only once.

I was in college and was rear-ended. I didn't know the department's number, so my only choice was to call 911.

Besides that, I've only called the police two other times, but the most recent time, I wish I WOULD have called 911, because I called dispatch and it took the police about 10 minutes to get to us.

There were some VERY drunk guys outside of our house. They had parked on the street and were fighting. At first, it was loud yelling at 2am, so I called dispatch instead of 911 and waited. While I waited, the fighting turned into punching and knocking eachother on to the ground and into other cars! They took off before the cops came. Oh well.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I can think of two times. The first when DS woke up at night and had trouble breathing. They started him on somthing in the ambulance. At the hospital he had breathing treatments and a shot. Ended up being stridor.

Second time was around last fall. A brush fire on the side of the highway that wasn't too far away from an overpass.

 

[paintnolish]

I've called a couple of times. Once when my parents house was on fire. The power lines shorted out and started a very small fire in the attic. Thank you bikers going by. I also had to call when my 2 year old left the house and wasn't anywhere in the yard! They found her 2 streets over. Never left the door unlocked again.

That reminds me! We called the FD a few months ago. Our power surged and then the basement was hazy and smelled smokey. We have an old house with some knob and tube wiring and didn't want to take any chances.Turns out a balast (sp?) in a socket had gone out.

 

[Ephany]

Twice we called. Once when DH found kids at our old apartment tossing firecrackers under people's vehicles to see if they could make one go 'boom'. They just laughed at DH when he told them to knock it off. Second time we called animal control on the weekend because we had caught a puppy someone had dumped in our community. Apparently the animal control number gets forwarded to 911 on the weekends; I felt like an idiot when the operator picked up though, I thought I had mis-dialed. Thankfully we've not had to call for an emergency situation.

 

[SamRoc]

I live in a beach community and heard noises on the side of my house one night last summer. first it sounded like the bushes moving, then water running. Some drunk pulled his car over and pee'd on my house!! i saw the plate number and called 911. the cops got him a little further down the road.

 

[Stacerita]

I called before. The last time was a few months back. I was the victim of road rage and the guy had me pinned in and got out of his car to come over to me.

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

Hmm...

A few years ago I was on my way to Disney on the Turnpike, HUGE storm, and a tree fell across the road about 30 feet in front of my car. It was big, and I couldn't tell if there were any cars under it initially...and it was POURING and hard to see and I could hear brakes screeching, I was afraid of more accidents to come. That was very scary!

A couple of times at the summer camps I work at, a few hundred kids away from home always equals a few hospital trips!