Public Service Announcement
Mar. 15th, 2009 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perzephone
Ok, I know calling an ambulance is usually a last resort for most people. It's also hideously expensive.
But if you are seriously ill, been stung or bitten by an animal you are allergic to (like Rob's scorpion adventure), think you are passing a stone, broken a bone, having a stroke, having a heart attack, bleeding profusely or have severed a limb or stabbed yourself in the leg or shot yourself or someone else has shot you...
Call a fucking ambulance. Why spend the money, you ask, why not just drive yourself or have someone drive you to the emergency room?
1) If you get into a car with impaired ability to drive & get pulled over by the cops - they will waste precious time giving your dumb ass a ticket and will call an ambulance anyway.
2) If you get into a car with impaired ability, just like driving under the influence, and you cause a wreck you have just made your own situation worse, you've endangered someone else - and you can go to jail on top of it all.
3) When you call an ambulance, the EMTs are trained to handle emergency situations. Modern ambulances, at least here in America, are like mini-ERs - they have oxygen, a crash cart & an EKG machine, they carry insulin, nitroglycerin & antihistamines, anti-nausea meds, they can perform a tracheotomy & begin triage for minor wounds & they can set bones - all without leaving your driveway, and in some cases, your living room.
4) If you drive yourself to an ER, even if you have been shot, you have to admit yourself & wait just like the other hundred or so people in the lobby. Yes, ERs do prioritize, but I've seen a lot of discrimination in big-city ERs as well, especially ones in gang territories. (I've spent a lot of time in QuickCares & ERs because I break things frequently & Rob likes to play with sharp pointy things). But if a gang member gets shot & someone calls them an ambulance, they get top priority, too.
5) If you arrive at an ER in an ambulance... Let me put it this way. When I got to the hospital via ambulance Tuesday night, there were people in beds lining the hallways - it was packed & so busy. I went straight to a triage room & then was admitted into a hospital room in the ICU. Took maybe 15 minutes.
And one last thing - aspirin, plain old aspirin, can save your life & prevent damage to your heart & brain. Keep it in your house - just a small bottle of children's chewable aspirin if you can't take the bitter grown-up type.
But if you are seriously ill, been stung or bitten by an animal you are allergic to (like Rob's scorpion adventure), think you are passing a stone, broken a bone, having a stroke, having a heart attack, bleeding profusely or have severed a limb or stabbed yourself in the leg or shot yourself or someone else has shot you...
Call a fucking ambulance. Why spend the money, you ask, why not just drive yourself or have someone drive you to the emergency room?
1) If you get into a car with impaired ability to drive & get pulled over by the cops - they will waste precious time giving your dumb ass a ticket and will call an ambulance anyway.
2) If you get into a car with impaired ability, just like driving under the influence, and you cause a wreck you have just made your own situation worse, you've endangered someone else - and you can go to jail on top of it all.
3) When you call an ambulance, the EMTs are trained to handle emergency situations. Modern ambulances, at least here in America, are like mini-ERs - they have oxygen, a crash cart & an EKG machine, they carry insulin, nitroglycerin & antihistamines, anti-nausea meds, they can perform a tracheotomy & begin triage for minor wounds & they can set bones - all without leaving your driveway, and in some cases, your living room.
4) If you drive yourself to an ER, even if you have been shot, you have to admit yourself & wait just like the other hundred or so people in the lobby. Yes, ERs do prioritize, but I've seen a lot of discrimination in big-city ERs as well, especially ones in gang territories. (I've spent a lot of time in QuickCares & ERs because I break things frequently & Rob likes to play with sharp pointy things). But if a gang member gets shot & someone calls them an ambulance, they get top priority, too.
5) If you arrive at an ER in an ambulance... Let me put it this way. When I got to the hospital via ambulance Tuesday night, there were people in beds lining the hallways - it was packed & so busy. I went straight to a triage room & then was admitted into a hospital room in the ICU. Took maybe 15 minutes.
And one last thing - aspirin, plain old aspirin, can save your life & prevent damage to your heart & brain. Keep it in your house - just a small bottle of children's chewable aspirin if you can't take the bitter grown-up type.
