Phone emergency contact info

[klmama]

I've read about listing people as emergency contacts in my phone, but I don't completely understand how it works. If I list a phone number under the ICE setting and I'm in an accident, what actually happens?  Do the EMT's send a message to let my contact know?  Are there any drawbacks to this?  

[Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, klmama said:

Are there any drawbacks to this?  

The only drawback would be if you misplaced your phone, someone would get to know the phone number and make a scam call from your phone. I have my husband’s phone and my healthcare provider listed under emergency info. It’s a risk we are willing to take. 

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, klmama said:

I've read about listing people as emergency contacts in my phone, but I don't completely understand how it works. If I list a phone number under the ICE setting and I'm in an accident, what actually happens?  Do the EMT's send a message to let my contact know?  Are there any drawbacks to this?  s 

I don't think there are any serious drawbacks, but my brother is an EMT and he says they never look at people's phones. I'm sure there are exceptions, but . . FWIW.

[Miss Tick]

I think of it more as "if you find this phone, swipe here to get a number to call in order to return it for gratitude and perhaps a reward"

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

Only once have I ever looked at someone’s phone, and it was an unresponsive teenager with nobody with him and we were trying to get name/DOB and any medical hx, plus alert parents.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the phone.

A few times I know the ER staff have used the feature.  As a paramedic I try not to touch patients possessions and if someone is so obtunded that they can’t answer my questions I am probably too busy to look through a phone anyway.

[Kareni]

2 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

obtunded

I've learned a new word today so thank you!

Regards,

Kareni

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

15 minutes ago, Kareni said:

I've learned a new word today so thank you!

Regards,

Kareni

I am deep in the middle of preparing lesson plans for the EMT class i’m teaching this fall and so my brain is filled with obscure words 😂

[marbel]

Don't most people keep their phone password/fingerprint/otherwise protected so random people can't access it?  That said, I have a designated ICE contact in mine. But I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to get it, so not sure why I do.

[Miss Tick]

17 hours ago, marbel said:

Don't most people keep their phone password/fingerprint/otherwise protected so random people can't access it?  That said, I have a designated ICE contact in mine. But I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to get it, so not sure why I do.

On my phone, when it prompts me for my passcode, there is also an "emergency" button. Pressing that brings up limited phone capabilities and another button to press for emergency info. That is where my emergency contacts, blood type, and allergy information show up. So no passcode needed to access that limited information, but no access into a "protected area" of my phone either. DS has walked everyone through setting them up. It is an option in the "settings" menu on my phone.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Miss Tick

[Arcadia]

46 minutes ago, marbel said:

Don't most people keep their phone password/fingerprint/otherwise protected so random people can't access it?  That said, I have a designated ICE contact in mine. But I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to get it, so not sure why I do.

They can press Emergency on my locked iPhone screen and get access to my husband’s cellphone number, the name of my healthcare provider and my drug allergies.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Arcadia
Resize photo

[MEmama]

1 minute ago, Arcadia said:

They can press Emergency on my locked iPhone screen and get access to my husband’s cellphone number, the name of my healthcare provider and my drug allergies.

That's a very cool feature! I'm going to look on mine now for how to set it up. Thanks for the visual! (It's funny how much stuff we overlook when we think it isn't "relevant")

[Arcadia]

3 minutes ago, MEmama said:

That's a very cool feature! I'm going to look on mine now for how to set it up. Thanks for the visual! (It's funny how much stuff we overlook when we think it isn't "relevant")

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207021

[kbutton]

For iPhone…my son dropped his at a fireworks display and didn’t realize until he was back to the car. We tried to call it with no luck. Someone gave it to police, and they said they always try telling Siri to “Call Mom.”

A bit of a tangent but it might be useful to know if you find someone’s phone or are the person trying to access someone’s emergency contact.

[marbel]

1 hour ago, Miss Tick said:

On my phone, when it prompts me for my practice, there is also an "emergency" button

OK now I'm showing my ignorance, or lack of curiosity about my own devices, or something - but I'd never actually pressed that "emergency" button. I had some vague notion, I guess, that it immediately dialed 911? 🤦‍♀️ Yeah, kinda dumb on my part. 

I put in my emergency contact phone numbers. 

Blood type: I've had more than one medical professional say they always determine, through their own testing, people's blood type before proceeding with anything, even if the person tells them what it is. I wonder if that is generally true. 

Anyway, thanks to all who shared this information!

Edited July 15, 2023 by marbel

[Miss Tick]

5 minutes ago, marbel said:

Yeah, kinda dumb on my part. 

Nah. I didn't pay any attention to it either until my DS encouraged me to set it up.

[Pawz4me]

36 minutes ago, kbutton said:

For iPhone…my son dropped his at a fireworks display and didn’t realize until he was back to the car. We tried to call it with no luck. Someone gave it to police, and they said they always try telling Siri to “Call Mom.”

A bit of a tangent but it might be useful to know if you find someone’s phone or are the person trying to access someone’s emergency contact.

Will Siri do that if you have face ID or a pass code set up? It's kind of scary if she would. Wouldn't that mean anybody could pick up anybody's phone and tell Siri to do anything?

[Arcadia]

39 minutes ago, marbel said:

Blood type: I've had more than one medical professional say they always determine, through their own testing, people's blood type before proceeding with anything, even if the person tells them what it is. I wonder if that is generally true. 

If urgent, they generally give the universal donor blood type which is O while they do their own testing. Testing for blood type is very fast, just a prick of finger and the results show almost immediately. The Rhesus Factor test takes much longer.

 

1 hour ago, kbutton said:

Someone gave it to police, and they said they always try telling Siri to “Call Mom.”

We were told in our country of origin to not put Mom, Dad, Grandma, etc on our phone in case someone who managed to get access to our cellphone contacts use those to call and scam (ask for money). My Siri is turned off anyway. I think my iPhone snoops enough without enabling Siri as well. 

[Melissa in Australia]

My Dd lost her phone once. I got a call from the person who found it. They said "hi mum, we found a phone that has you as mum." 

I don't know how they accessed the number but it worked. We got the phone back

[ScoutTN]

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

Will Siri do that if you have face ID or a pass code set up? It's kind of scary if she would. Wouldn't that mean anybody could pick up anybody's phone and tell Siri to do anything?

Depends how you set up your phone, I think? 

[Pawz4me]

4 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Depends how you set up your phone, I think? 

You’re right. There’s a setting for “allow Siri when locked.”

[wathe]

3 hours ago, marbel said:

 

Blood type: I've had more than one medical professional say they always determine, through their own testing, people's blood type before proceeding with anything, even if the person tells them what it is. I wonder if that is generally true. 

I cannot imagine even contemplating transfusing type-specific blood based on a patient's verbal declaration of their blood type. That would be beyond reckless --- patients make mistakes/misremember their own medical history all.the.time.  

Emergent, unmatched transfusions are O neg for females of reproductive age or younger, o neg or pos for everyone else.

Urgent and elective transfusions are typed and crossed in the lab before transfusing, every time.  Even for recurrent transfusions.   Type and cross, every single time.

[Ellie]

5 hours ago, Miss Tick said:

On my phone, when it prompts me for my practice, there is also an "emergency" button. Pressing that brings up limited phone capabilities and another button to press for emergency info. That is where my emergency contacts, blood type, and allergy information show up. So no passcode needed to access that limited information, but no access into a "protected area" of my phone either. DS has walked everyone through setting them up. It is an option in the "settings" menu on my phone.

I did not know this, so I checked my phone, and up, there it is. So I added some information, and I'll tell Mr. Ellie about it tomorrow so he can do it on his phone, too. Thanks!

[vonfirmath]

29 minutes ago, wathe said:

I cannot imagine even contemplating transfusing type-specific blood based on a patient's verbal declaration of their blood type. That would be beyond reckless --- patients make mistakes/misremember their own medical history all.the.time.  

Emergent, unmatched transfusions are O neg for females of reproductive age or younger, o neg or pos for everyone else.

Urgent and elective transfusions are typed and crossed in the lab before transfusing, every time.  Even for recurrent transfusions.   Type and cross, every single time.

This is why O- is so desired!

My mom is always being called. Unfortunately, I did not inherit this 😞

[Laura Corin]

On Android you can choose to put an emergency contact on the lock screen. It could be used if there was a medical crisis or if the phone was lost. Considering the number of organisations that already have my husband's number - for deliveries, etc. - I  don't see this as much of an extra privacy issue.