Given yesterday’s events, East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national “In case of Emergency (ICE)” campaign with the support of Falklands war hero Simon Weston and in association with Vodafone’s annual life savers award.
The idea is that you store the word “ICE” in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted “In Case of Emergency”. In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them.
It’s so simple - 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.
What a bloody great and simple Idea!
Topic Posted by Iain, HTS (Higgins Transport Solutions)****, at 20:29 on 08/07/2005.
Given yesterday’s events, East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national “In case of Emergency (ICE)” campaign with the support of Falklands war hero Simon Weston and in association with Vodafone’s annual life savers award.
The idea is that you store the word “ICE” in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted “In Case of Emergency”. In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them.
It’s so simple - 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.
What a bloody great and simple Idea!
Topic Posted by Iain, HTS (Higgins Transport Solutions)****, at 20:29 on 08/07/2005.
hitch:
great idea but i already do it
i call it home
Me too, I think just about everyone has an entry called ‘Home’ or ‘Work’ in their phone so the ICE thing seems a bit pointless to me. If there is an unidentified victim of an accident but the emergency services have their mobile it isn’t exactly going to be rocket science to identify them.
Calling almost any number in their contacts list would do the trick I would have thought, and that is without getting in touch with their service provider and getting the details that way.
I think it is a good idea but probably won’t work in reality, same as the SOS bracelets etc.
My Dad has a mild form of epilepsy and if he had a minor blackout people were always over-reacting (not there fault - they didn’t know better) and calling an ambulance etc etc. This was not needed and was a waste of a valuable resource so my Dads doctor told him to wear one of those bracelets that has a folded paper insert with emergency contact details and medical notes etc.
On many occaisions either public, police or ambulance took no notice of the info so he stopped wearing it.
As a member of the emergancy services I can tell you that its bloody hard trying to ID someone at the side of the road and that not everyone has the sense to put an entry in there mobile with home or work on its usualy full of auntie julie and uncle bob’s!
Its a case of who is appropriate to contact in a case of an emergency. For example in my case if you called “home” you’d probably get through to my rather forgetful flatmate Chris who might, if you were lucky, scrawl an illegable note on a post it and stick it somewhere where it will get lost, and maybe one day about 3 weeks later when he was wondering why he hadn’t seen me in 3 weeks and why hadn’t the washing up been done cos “he was sure it was my turn” might he actually do something about having recieved this message! Not that I am bitter though.
Speaking as a member of the ambulance service, I wouldn’t and don’t think any of my colleagues would go through someones phone to try and get contact details, but, the police could and would on scene, or once at the hospital staff there would and it could be very useful.
As with many things, it isn’t fail safe, but it can work, and the more people that know about it and use it the more likely it is to work.
As an aside Marcus, you might find that quite often ambulance service Paramedics and Technicians had seen the sos bracelet and reacted accordingly. However, i must say when I have been presented with that situation myself I have still gone down the same treatment paths. Just because someone has a history of mild blackouts doesn’t mean that this blackout is a mild blackout. I’d far rather be half way to hospital and have someone regain consciousness and say “where am I? What am I doing here I’m fine” than be sat at the roadside after 30 mins thinking “I’m sure they should have come round by now!!”
WHAT A GOOD IDEA. i USE A SIMILAR THING FOR BOTH THE HOUSE AND THE CAR, THE ROTARY CLUB CAME UP WITH A MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (PLASTIC ) SCHEME FOR PEOPLE LIVING ALONE. i HAVE A GREEN CROSS STICKER ON THE INSIDE OF THE FRONT DOOR SO THE DOCTOR OR AMBULANCE SERVICE KNOW ALL DETAILS ARE KEPT INSIDE THE FRIDGE. THE SAME APPLIES IN THE GLOVE BOX OF MY CAR. I BELIEVE THIS SCHEME IS USED THROUGHOUT THE U.K.
ANYTHING THAT HELPS SAVE TIME IN EMERGENCIES IS ALWAYS GOOD, THANKS KEN FOR SHARING THE INFORMATION WITH US ALL.
The problem, with dialling ‘home’ or ‘work’ or come to that, any number on your phone, is the 1984 Data Protection Act, Emegency Servicess need to be so careful, who they tell or discuss whatever with, it borders on ludicrous, I know but in this day of suing anybody for anything, you need to be careful.
Personaly, if I’m hurt and somebody needs to identify me through any means, go for it.
Trust me as a St.John Officer, I’m aware of these stupid laws.
hitch:
great idea but i already do it
i call it home
Not much point in dialling that number from my mobile, unless you want to talk to my answerphone.
Not everybody has ‘somebody’ at home to contact, and I certainly wouldn’t want the emergency services breaking bad news over the phone to my kids.
As a result, I think the ICE idea is a ■■■■ good one.
Mart:
As an aside Marcus, you might find that quite often ambulance service Paramedics and Technicians had seen the sos bracelet and reacted accordingly. However, i must say when I have been presented with that situation myself I have still gone down the same treatment paths. Just because someone has a history of mild blackouts doesn’t mean that this blackout is a mild blackout. I’d far rather be half way to hospital and have someone regain consciousness and say “where am I? What am I doing here I’m fine” than be sat at the roadside after 30 mins thinking “I’m sure they should have come round by now!!”
I can undestand that Mart. I also used to think he was better to be checked by the professionals (he could’ve taken a serious head injury etc) but I think he got fed up of being taken to the other side of town (in the ambulance) by which time he was back to ‘normal’ so often didn’t even go inside A&E. Obviously, you don’t get a lift back so he had the ‘inconvienience’ of getting crap buses either back to where he was or home.
If my post above appeared to be critisizing the Emergency Services, then I apologise as it wasn’t meant to at all; quite the opposite in fact!!
On first look not a bad idea but what if the phone keypad is locked? Without the code number NONE of the numbers in the phone can be accessed very easily making it just another piece of debris. When you weigh up the risks of theft against incapacity after injury I will choose the security option and continue with the donor card that, while no longer valid for organ donation, still has next of kin details.
I don’t know about you. but most people I know have the most important person in their life listed under number 1 in their cell dialer. I actually used to work for an ice company, and if I’d had a cell phone at the time, I’d probably have had it listed under the name "ice’. The name of the company I currently work for is on my speed dialer, and if somebody didn’t know that, they’d probably think that listing was for something much more important. No, I’d guess that 99% of the time, just dialing “1” on a cell phone is sufficient.
hitch:
great idea but i already do it
i call it home
Not much point in dialling that number from my mobile, .
Or mine, I live on my own so know one would answer, come to think of it I dont even know why i’ve got ‘home’ listed in my mobiles contact list, im not at the stage where i have to have a conversation with myself to pass the time…not yet anyway.
As a result, I think the ICE idea is a ■■■■ good one
“ICE” the word seems to be spreading fast,
I for one would not want a stranger to tell my good wife of any mishaps, So I would have “ICE” to my son.
The idea is that in difficult circumstances for the emergency services is that
The person you want to be contacted.
Is the person contacted.
Both my young children have mobiles, but there is no way I would want them called by the emergency services. I have put my ex wife in for them to contact, she is also an Ambulance Technician so would be better than anyone to tell my kids anything bad news style.
I have also got my Sister as 1st contact, then my Ex. As No3 is a very good friend I have known for 30 years, she is a Registered Nurse and is well liked by my kids.
I am all in favour of this ICE idea, perhaps there should be a sticker available to tell the E Services that the phone is programmed with ICE.
Coffeeholic:
Well that would be the problem solved then as I am sure Auntie Julie or Uncle Bob would know them.
Come on… So I make a phone call along the lines of ‘hello is that uncle Bob?’
‘yes’
‘have you got a relative that used to ride a motorcycle?’
‘yes’
‘well hes part of the road now so can you tell me who he is and who his next of kin is?’
Its a brill idea and your next of kin might not live at ‘home’ it could be your mum who might not live with you!
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