Calling 911.....have you had to call?

[Southern Ivy]

I called to report a fire near some electrical lines (and close-ish to a gas station) and I called once when my pregnant friend was unable to breathe. 

[catz]

I've only called once.  And it was just a couple months ago when another vehicle hit me from behind at high speed in an urban center.  It wasn't a true emergency situation - no one was hurt.  Both cars were totaled.  We were in very thick traffic.

[....]

We're originally from the southside of Chicago, so, yes, we've called it many times.  Now, whether or not anyone shows up is another topic...    :glare:

 

We've called it here in Texas a couple of times and they actually DO come out quickly (and they were surprisingly really professional).  

[....]

 and when a con-artist was knocking on doors wanting donations with a nonsense story about her mother grow up on the res a mile away.  If you're going to try to con a local know which tribes are actually nearby and where the tribe you name resides.

 

I had that happen to me a few years ago.  We're in Texas...this woman rang the doorbell and started telling me about how she's from inner city Chicago and asking for donations to their organization.  She kept looking past me into my house.  I said, "Wow!  We're actually from the southside of Chicago!  What a coincidence!  What neighborhood are you from?"  The lady could not name a single neighborhood, street, area, etc.   :sneaky2:  I kept asking her questions and the lady got flustered and left.  That weekend, a couple of houses in our subdivision were robbed.  I think they were scoping out houses.  

[Lecka]

I have called twice.

 

Once two of my kids locked themselves in their bedroom in a rental, with a turn lock, and the lock was old and I couldn't get it open from the hall. Firefighters came and got the door open, and suggested i have the landlord fix the door, because it was hard for them, too. They were very nice and left with me crying and one toddler clutching each of my legs. They were SO nice about it.

 

Another time we called for a strong smell of smoke. I think/know my daughter burned something in the microwave. She didn't know she had done it, but the firefighters found a scorch mark in the microwave. They were also very nice about it.

 

I have also had the gas company come, and it turned out we had a low-level gas leak from a stove, and they turned off our stove and we bought a new one. We had some kind of work done on our house and they recommended I call the gas company.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

A newborn baby was left in our yard, under our bedroom window, in the middle of the night. That warranted a call to 000.

 

Journalists arrived before the police and ambulance 😮

[MommyLiberty5013]

Multiple Times:

 

1. When I lived in Richmond, VA I called due to a high woman walking up and down the side walks next to a busy street. She kept stepping off the curb and stumbling.

 

2. Same city, a fight broke out under my apartment window.

 

3. Got hit when a man ran a stop sign. I had three kids in the car. We were safe, but I've always been told to call the police for any accident.

 

4. My CO detector went off and I couldn't get it to stop. Directions on it say to call 911, so I did. It turns out those CO detectors have a lifespan of only a few years. And after that span, they can malfunction.

 

5. About two summers ago, I witnessed a man lurking in the bushes near a playground and every time I walked with my kids, he followed at a distance. It was interesting that within a week the city cut down all the bushes.

 

6. This week on Wednesday night due to my DS4 seizure.

[edelweiss]

Fortunately I've never had any reason to call 911.

[Mandamom]

I was tutoring and the dad usually sits with us during the sessions. This day he wasn't feeling well and went to lay down. He is diabetic and his blood sugar dropped. He told his son to call 911 (mom and other son were at a car dealership) and the 8 year old picked up the phone and made the call. I stayed until mom came home. 

 

One of the first responders was the mom of a former student at the school where I teach. They treated him and he stayed at home. 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Mandamom

[LMD]

Yes, many times. First time I would have been about 8-9, my mother was on the floor and my step father was laughing...

 

I have called as an adult too, when I was assaulted, when I saw someone else being assaulted, when I heard a disturbing scream, when I saw a young under-dressed woman walking in the very early morning far from any houses.

 

Off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more.

[Daria]

I've called but never for a super urgent situation.

 

1) My 2 year old locked me out of the house

 

2) Minor accident, but my car was not driveable and we were blocking 

 

3) Bee sting in a kid with an identified allergy, we epi penned, which means an automatic call, but the kid never showed dangerous symptoms.  

 

I've also ridden an ambulance twice with students when someone else made the call.  Both kids were treated and released.

 

I should have called last year when my drunk neighbor was trying to convince my very confused, and naive teen to blow into her car starting breathalyzer for her.  

[Heathermomster]

Yes, I have. A teenage boy burst through our front door and invaded our home when I answered it. DH somehow pushed past me, grabbed him, and flung him out the front door while I called 911.

[Elizabeth86]

Yes once for a drunk driver.

 

I had a close call when my son was a toddler. He choked on a frozen blueberry and I could not get the Heimlich to work, his stomach muscles were so contracted I could not apply enough force! I was panicked and sat there with the phone unable to remember the number for a second or two. Fortunately I tried one more time on the Heimlich and the berry dislodged.

 

Now I have the number for 911 on my fridge in big numbers just in case. I could it believe I couldn't remember the number!

OMG this is my biggest fear.

[Elizabeth86]

A newborn baby was left in our yard, under our bedroom window, in the middle of the night. That warranted a call to 000.

 

Journalists arrived before the police and ambulance 😮

OMG no way!!

[JenneinCA]

Yes.

 

When I broke my ankle while biking with my then twelve year old. I got two fire trucks, at least two police cars, and an ambulance. They were very nice, very efficient, and very prompt. My twelve year old was kind of scared and I was in a lot of pain. It all worked out and I have nothing but good things to say about the people involved.

[medawyn]

Twice, both times to report a drunk driver.

 

The second time the dispatcher kept wanting me to get a license plate number so that the police could find the car.  I refused to get that close, but let her know that officers would probably recognize the car because the driver had gone over the median, lost a tire, and was driving with giant sparks flying behind him.  Sure enough, it appeared they had no trouble locating the vehicle in question (which during my call lost the OTHER rear tire, but that didn't seem to slow them down).

[Guest]

Yes, I have. A teenage boy burst through our front door and invaded our home when I answered it. DH somehow pushed past me, grabbed him, and flung him out the front door while I called 911.

That's insane! Was he on something?

[EKS]

Four times.

 

Twice for myself. I have a heart condition that periodically does its thing.  My husband is a firefighter/EMT, so not calling 911 isn't an option, even though it usually resolves on its own.

 

Once for another person who was experiencing chest pain.  She ended up being ok, thank goodness!

 

And the last time for a dog stuck in a boiling hot car. In our area, there isn't a non-emergency number for such things.

[G5052]

We're frequent flyers for DH. They've saved his life multiple times and as recent as March. 

[luuknam]

Nope... I have called poison control once though.

[caedmyn]

I've called three times that I can remember. Once after DH shot a vicious dog in our yard a couple years ago, once about 12 years ago when 2 cars were racing on our country road and one of them lost control and rolled his vehicle right in front of us, and once when I worked nights at a grocery store and some of the other employees aprehended a shoplifter who didn't want to be caught and fought until the poluce got there (and it took them quite a while, prob 10-15 mins).

 

I could have called another time, when DS3 was a toddler and got a chunk of carrot stuck in his throat. He was breathing but it was obviously stuck and I was afraid if it shifted at all it might block his windpipe. We figured it would take 15 mins for an ambulance to get to us, and 20 mins for us to get to the hospital, so we threw everybody in the van and took off for the ER. He coughed the carrot up a block before the hospital.

[Daria]

Nope... I have called poison control once though.

 

Poison control and I are good friends.  I called for the first time when my college roommate bit through a mercury thermometer, and again several times after that.

[vickjul]

Called once when a friend showed up at my house late one night and told me she had taken a whole bottle of Amitriptyline in an effort to kill herself.

Called once when I encountered an elephant in the middle of a city street. ... That was a fun call. I was also the local crime/court reporter at the time, so the dispatcher knew who I was. He repeated "An elephant? In the middle of Brushy Creek Road?? Is it pink???" I assured him that it was gray and that it appeared to be a large African elephant. He hemmed and hawed a bit more, then asked,  "Ms. {Name}, isn't a little early in the day for the press to be inebriated?" I assured him that I was stone sober and that there was indeed an elephant in the middle of the road. Took two police units, a sheriff's deputy, and the fire department to get the beast to move too! 

Called once when my toddler disappeared. (We found him under a bed trying out Nana's makeup just before the police showed up.)

Called last week due to an oven malfunction/small fire.

Edited July 30, 2017 by vickjul

[luuknam]

Poison control and I are good friends.  I called for the first time when my college roommate bit through a mercury thermometer, and again several times after that.

 

 

I've found them to be quite useless, to be honest... they recommended calling the pediatrician for the ped's opinion, who then of course recommended going to the ER (because liability, duh!). Good thing it turned out to be quite unnecessary, because the delay of explaining stuff to poison control, and then explaining it to the ped's receptionist, and then the ped's nurse, and then the 15 mile drive to the hospital could've easily killed the kid if it'd actually have been an issue. My wife called them another time for something else, and again they were quite clueless, though that time they said to just go to the ER "just in case", without making us call the ped first. Basically, they never told us anything Google didn't tell us (Google actually told us more, but in the end, it all boiled down to "better safe than sorry"). 

[Daria]

I've found them to be quite useless, to be honest... they recommended calling the pediatrician for the ped's opinion, who then of course recommended going to the ER (because liability, duh!). Good thing it turned out to be quite unnecessary, because the delay of explaining stuff to poison control, and then explaining it to the ped's receptionist, and then the ped's nurse, and then the 15 mile drive to the hospital could've easily killed the kid if it'd actually have been an issue. My wife called them another time for something else, and again they were quite clueless, though that time they said to just go to the ER "just in case", without making us call the ped first. Basically, they never told us anything Google didn't tell us (Google actually told us more, but in the end, it all boiled down to "better safe than sorry"). 

 

I had the opposite experience.  I called when the liquid in my kid's g-tube turned neon green.  I figured he'd eaten or drunk something neon green, and since I didn't have any neon green food in the house, I thought he might have found cleaning supplies or something.

 

Poison control listened to my explanation and asked me if I had any washable markers in the house, and if he'd possibly gotten hold of the black one, because apparently black crayola marker is made up of multiple dyes, all of which dissolve in stomach acid except the neon green.  

 

Sure enough, he'd sucked on a marker earlier in the day.

[eternalsummer]

I have also called poison control and found them mostly unhelpful.

[rose]

Called once when I encountered an elephant in the middle of a city street. ... That was a fun call. I was also the local crime/court reporter at the time, so the dispatcher knew who I was. He repeated "An elephant? In the middle of Brushy Creek Road?? Is it pink???" I assured him that it was gray and that it appeared to be a large African elephant. He hemmed and hawed a bit more, then asked,  "Ms. {Name}, isn't a little early in the day for the press to be inebriated?" I assured him that I was stone sober and that there was indeed an elephant in the middle of the road. Took two police units, a sheriff's deputy, and the fire department to get the beast to move too! 

 

 

 

That's a great story!

[luuknam]

I had the opposite experience.  I called when the liquid in my kid's g-tube turned neon green.  I figured he'd eaten or drunk something neon green, and since I didn't have any neon green food in the house, I thought he might have found cleaning supplies or something.

 

Poison control listened to my explanation and asked me if I had any washable markers in the house, and if he'd possibly gotten hold of the black one, because apparently black crayola marker is made up of multiple dyes, all of which dissolve in stomach acid except the neon green.  

 

Sure enough, he'd sucked on a marker earlier in the day.

 

 

See, we knew what the kid had potentially taken. One time, we found the kid sucking on half a blood pressure medication pill (we figured out it was a blood pressure medication by using one of those pill identifiers online... the color/shape and remaining letters/numbers were enough to identify it, even though to this day we have NO clue where that pill could've come from... the hospital confirmed that our identification of it was correct, and suggested that it was maybe hidden in the carpet from the previous owners... except that that was impossible because the house a) did not have any carpet anywhere, and b) that room did not have a floor at all when we bought it - it was a 3 ft drop to the dirt after stepping over the threshold. It was really weird. 

[eternalsummer]

maybe someone tracked the pill in in a shoe tread

[scoutingmom]

4 times that I can think of.

 

1. I dumped comet (bathroom cleaner) in my eyes getting it out of the cupboard. Ran my eyes under water, had a quick peak at the container and verified that was correct (and glad I could see!) Grabbed phone while reading the container. Continued running water in my eyes while on phone and until the peremedics came.

 

Btw... the company will send you a plastic lid if you contact them.....

 

 

2. Friend attempting overdose in front of me. This will cause a rant so all I will say.

 

3. Spotted a small grass fire in a trail in the city. Called and waited for the fire trucks.

 

4. Dh had a heart attack last year.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[boscopup]

We've only had to call once so far... Our Ford F-150 spontaneously ignited in the middle of the night, and when my husband went out to go to work, he saw smoke coming out from above the garage doors and smelled the lovely smell of burning electrical wire. He's a volunteer firefighter, so he knew not to open the door. ;) We had plenty of fire trucks at our property within minutes. And they were able to use it as a training exercise for some newbies (the fire was out, but it did flare up a bit on a tire when they opened the door).

 

All of the ER visits we've had have been times when we could just drive there ourselves quicker than it would take for EMTs to get to us, and the issues weren't serious enough to make moving the injured a problem.

 

I could see needing to call a lot with an elderly person in the house. Our next door neighbors are elderly and have the ambulance out about once a month. :(

[BlsdMama]

I feel like I am a frequent flyer caller to 911. A few times the non emergency number but way too frequently the emergency one.

 

Tonight it was from my cell phone as I drove to MIL home. Followed the ambulance and now I am sitting in ER.

 

It seems like there are people out there that have never had to call 911, have the sheriff over, fire department, etc.

 

First time ever we had to call it was when 2 week old dd stopped breathing. Now it is mostly MIL related although I have called for loose horses in a major busy road....I think I called non emergency for that.

 

 

LOL - just last week.

 

We were following a dump truck with a load when we noticed smoke.... Then flames.  I couldn't get the driver to stop by flashing my lights.

 

The next part is funny and weird.

 

Called 911, dispatcher was sending firetruck, said she thought he was probably going to the dump.  (Fella obviously had poles like telephone poles in back and other things.)

 

The kids saw the flames first and I told them NO.  And then I saw it.  Then they got a little bigger.

 

Yes, he pulled into the dump.  When he pulled up to weigh, me, donning superhero cape, leaped from my van, shouting and waving, telling him his load was on fire.

 

Was it?

 

Yeah, dunno.

 

Because he, all worried, jumped into the back of the load and tells me there is NO fire.  No smoke.  No heat.

 

Now I knew good and well there WAS a fire AND smoke.  I was totally caught off guard and befuddled.  He was super nice and I was very confused.  I had an appointment to go to so I did not get to hear the end of this story.

 

But we did meet firetrucks on the way!

 

(And, honestly, thinking on it later, I am CERTAIN when they opened up that load there was a fire down in the middle.  I think the wind whipping through there must have caused coals or whatever to flame and when he stopped it went back to smoldering.  There is no other explanation.  The kids (4-6 of them) saw it first and it was not an optical illusion as we saw both smoke and flames.)  But chalk it up to really weird experiences.

 

Other than that - twice for being first on scene at car accidents, once for a child drinking EO's (after that they were locked up.  This was back in like 2006 when no one had them and the ER had no idea what to do with my information) and DH had to call 911 for my miscarriage back in December of 2015.  

Edited August 1, 2017 by BlsdMama

[AndyJoy]

Yes:

 

1. I heared screaming, "No! No! No!" DH went to investigate. We found 19-year-old with 85-year-old grandma who was seizing. Granddaughter's father had just died, and she was so distraught she told grandma the news at the door instead of waiting for her uncle as planned. DH got grandma in a safe position while I called then held distraught teen.

 

2. Same elderly woman fell taking out her trash at 11:30 pm. She dragged herself to her car and honked the horn repeatedly until we came. Took us a while to realize it wasn't just a car alarm.

 

 

3. Domestic violence at the neighbors' house.

 

4. My mom broke her arm terribly tripping on a sidewalk crack. She wanted me to drive her but I argued, then she passed out so I called 911.

 

5. My mom passed out in the bathroom and hit her head on the wall when she was visiting when I had a newborn.

 

I've been present for other calls, but those are the ones I've made. I've also called the non-emergency line a few times (including two days ago for a dog in a hot car).

[Jean in Newcastle]

I called once when I was house sitting for someone and the burglar alarm went off in the middle of the night. The dispatcher wanted me to go look around and I said "no way". All I had as a weapon was my hair brush. I called 911 because I didn't know what opened the door! (Later they figured out that the homeowners hadn't properly latched a side door but I had no way of knowing that then. )

 

 

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[lauraw4321]

1. Man beating his wife/girlfriend on the streets in Atlanta

 

2. Domestic violence in the apartment above mine in Atlanta

 

3. Fire on the side of the highway

 

4. Horrible car accident with people ejected and vehicle flipped.

 

5. Motorcycle going 120 down the highway at night

 

6. Several men beating another man outside of a bar in Atlanta

 

I'm pretty sure I've called more times than that, but these are just the ones I can remember.

[Spryte]

I guess I'm a frequent flyer, too.

 

Once when my house was being broken into, in college, and I was home alone. I locked myself in my bedroom with a can of oven cleaner (aaack!) and it felt like the house would fall down as they kicked the back door in.

 

For various crimes, etc, back then - mostly the non emergency number.

 

Once for anaphylaxis, for myself, after a surgery. I didn't know what anaphylaxis was, and did not have an epipen.

 

Multiple times for DS - anaphylaxis. Just about two months ago was the last one.

 

Recently when my elderly mother fell down our wooden stairs backwards, on her back the whole way.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Spryte

[Jean in Newcastle]

I posted about this here, I think.  I was driving in a nearby neighborhood and saw a man crawl under a hedge and stop moving.  I called the police (I didn't know if he was drunk, having a medical problem or what.)  They asked me if I had gone over to him to check.  I asked them if they were crazy.  I was not leaving my children vulnerable while I checked (which would also put me in a vulnerable position).  I mean, what if he was setting me up to be robbed or something?  (Maybe I watch too much tv.)  Then as I waited for police in my car on the side of the road, another man came and started fighting with him (so I knew he was alive at that point).  I think they were both either drunk or high?  Either way, the police were there by then and I moved on gratefully.