Emergency 101

What would you do if a family member or a friend collapses in your presence? It could be a fall and a broken limb, or loss of consciousness caused by anything from stroke to hypoglycemia. You need to stay calm and coherent. You need to have presence of mind to take the necessary actions.

If you’re not sure what to do, call 999 for emergencies and ambulance. To call the fire brigade, dial 994. 991 is for Civil Defence when there’s a disaster like flash flood, landslide etc. They’d ask you some questions to gauge the situation as they dispatch a unit to your location.

Through the decades, I’ve seen how our emergency units have developed. It has improved by leaps and bounds. I still remember the ambulance in the 70s. It was almost like a delivery van with just an oxygen tank and a gurney that had seen better days. The driver and the attendant weren’t even trained to do CPR. Their duty, it seemed, was to arrive at the scene and take the sick person to the nearest hospital.

It was a painful memory for me because I saw my aunt collapse in the bathroom and nobody knew what to do. At least that was what it was like in the memory of a teenager. She died before arriving at the hospital. I’d never felt more helpless or angry. It was my first emergency experience where the ambulance came to the house.

For some reason I’d always imagined it to be better. At that time, there was a television series called which featured a team of dedicated members of a fire department in Los Angeles and the newly-created paramedics service that accompanied every emergency call. For

Fast forward to the millennium. How things have changed, and for the better too! I just marvel at today’s highly-skilled ambulance crew. They can manoeuvre the stretcher with the injured person firmly strapped on it around tight corners of staircases and even small lifts. Once they’ve attended to the injured person, they’d even help you by guiding you with what you need to do. It’s all very fast and minimal words are uttered. Their priority is to get your loved one to the hospital for immediate treatment.

From the stories my friends and I share, one of most important things to remember in times of emergency is this: call the ambulance if you need to take your loved one to the hospital. If it’s just the two of you there, you get in the ambulance and go together. Remember to bring your loved one’s identity card, some cash and credit card if you have one. You can always find some transport home later.

In the ambulance, the paramedic would contact the hospital and provide details of what’s happening. The ambulance would also be equipped, unlike your car, to handle certain emergencies. Upon arrival, your loved one would be sent directly to where he needs to go.

If you drove your loved one to the emergency unit in your own car, there might be delays before your loved one can get some attention because he’d need to be registered and have his details sorted out. You’d lose precious time with these formalities.

In addition, you’d need to park your car. By the time you’re back in the emergency room, you’d have to ask around to locate your loved one who could be just about anywhere for treatment or surgery.

If your loved one has gone off in the ambulance with another person in tow and you’re following in your car, don’t put on the hazard lights and tailgate the ambulance. That’s dangerous. You still need to park the car before you can be with your loved one.

In the meantime, there’s already someone there with him. What you need is a power bank to keep your phone charged to keep the communications line open, and a steady head to meet the coming challenges.