emergencies and cell phones

[annie]

today i was at a conference with a group from the senior center. when we went out to lunch one of the group had a small stroke. we called 911 on my cell and got her to the emergency room.

but we didn't have any emergency contact information for her. we weren't sure of her last name. we didn't know the names of her sons.

no one wanted to go thru her purse. we did take her cell phone and look in the phone book, but we didn't know who the names were.

good ending, we did find her son and she will be ok.

lesson learned. now my cell phone has a listing in the phone book as EmergencyContact so that there isn't any question in anyone's mind about who to call.

we were the only two in the group with cell phones. bet the rest of the group has them by next week. they are expensive, but when you need them you need them.

[LIZARD]

Good for you, Annie! :)

I am a firm believer that anyone who lives alone, spends a lot of time alone, is female (and I think it's fairly obvious why), is elderly, or has a chronic health condition (especially one that can be life-threatening suddenly) should carry a cell phone. I have had one for five years, and believe me, it's worth the money! There are even bare-bones deals you can get for very little per month and still be able to call 9-1-1 whenever and wherever. Some are as little as a dollar a day, and if that's too much, ask for a pay-as-you-go with a card that allows you to use minutes only when necessary without monthly bills. If you ask for a phone and card for Christmas (which may be as little as 50 or 60 bucks), you can be set for some time in that case. Whatever the situation, please do yourself a favor and do this. It can save your life.


LIZARD :)

[wildpinky]

i always carry my cell phone with me...i only paid $25 for the phone and only add minutes when i need them...so for as little as $10 every three months, i have a phone just incase something happens...

[Tbackpain1]

Just FYI, if EMS or Police go into your phone during an Emergency, they are told to look for a listing under your contacts of I.C.E. (in case of emergency). There have been PSA's from our local office of emergency management reminding people to put they're emergency contact under this listing to make it easier for them to contact your loved ones.


For those who are on limited budgets, there are phones, like TracPhone, which allow you to purchase a low cost phone and use a phone card to add minutes to it when you need it. Major Cell carriers offer similar programs, so check them out at the local store or on the web. If you have health issues, it's very important that you have a cell phone, and IMHO, also a MedicAlert bracelet.

Theresa

[bewolf]

This is going around the e-mails in UK.. I thought it was a good idea, so I am passing it on...

"East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national

"In Case of Emergency (ICE)"

campaign with the support of Falkland's War Hero Simon Weston.

The idea is that you store the word "ICE" in your mobile (cell) phone address book and against it enter the number of person you would want contacted "In Case of Emergency"

In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them.

It is as simple as that!

Everyone can do it!

Please do.

Please will you also forward this to everybody in your address book.
It Won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this.

It really could save your life!!

For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc"

[j*sunset]

Unfortunately those "pay as you go phones" still require you to spend money even if you only use it for emergencies.

you must keep a certain amount in the account and add to it regularly whether you use minutes or not- i checked into while looking at phones for daughter.

I wonder if there is a kind of phone or cell service that a disabled or person with a medical necessity could get cell phone services for a big discount??
does anyone know of something like that?

PS -
i found a cell phone and it had listing such as - dad's, sister, brother& home ect no name's but the relationships -i could pick one to call to report that I had found the phone.

[annie]

everyone i emailed this to wrote me back about the ICE listing. but i would not have noticed this, or understood it when i was panicking. so i now recommend having two listings for your contact number (hey, they are free) one as ICE for the police and one as EmergencyContact for those of us who don't think well under stress.

any cell phone can call 911, even if you don't have a carrier. or at least it is supposed to work that way, who knows what it really does.

for a long time i had a tracfone, paid 90 dollars a year. for this i got a year of air time and i think 250 minutes of talk. the phone was free on some sort of promotion. if you watch their web site you can frequently get free phones.

but i did have problems with incoming calls, and one day when i was having a major ACCESS paratransit meltdown (the dispatcher kept saying "i am looking at the map, there is no building there") the friend whose phone i was using put me on her family plan. now we share phone time, and neither of us uses much so it works very well. you don't have to be related to use the family plan, might be a good group thing to do. the phone was free. and takes incoming calls.

i don't use it very much, but there have been several times now when it was really needed. there are no pay phones any more, and if you don't drive you can't be running around the streets looking for a pay phone. once i was trying to get into a church for a meeting. the door was locked but there was a doorbell we rang and someone came and let us in. it was broken. i knew they were there but they couldn't hear me. so i went walking (on crutches) several blocks before i finally found a pay phone. in a motel. full of young couples, girls with interesting clothes on. suddenly realized that i was in a hot sheet motel calling a church to ask them to let me in. went out and got a cell phone the next day.

[CoolAngel28]

Annie,

Can I put this piece over on the Hydrocephalus board??It could become a lifesaver for them,or one of their kids..You can PM me,if you don't want to respond to me here.;)

CoolAngel28

[annie]

Annie,

Can I put this piece over on the Hydrocephalus board??It could become a lifesaver for them,or one of their kids..You can PM me,if you don't want to respond to me here.;)

CoolAngel28

sure, copy away. if it helps one person it will make me very happy, and if it helps more than one i will be totally joyful.

i also posted this on the epilepsy forum, my home forum. some posters have put some really good stuff on the thread there, you might want to look at what they wrote there also.

http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/showthread.php?p=20487#post20487

this really seems to be hitting a nerve!

[Jolene]

Just so you know, the law requires that ALL cell phones be able to contact 9-1-1 even if they have no service. I didn't believe it myself so I told my old phone that I hadn't used in yrs (service cancelled) and charged it up. Sure enough when I dialed 9-1-1 it worked. So if you only want it for a true emergency that is an option that doesn't cost anything. From what I'm told that holds true anywhere that offers 9-1-1 wireless service.

[annie]

bump bump bump