911 is the emergency number here in Canada if you’re unfamiliar. 112, 999, etc if you’re elsewhere IIRC.
Do you remember the first time you had to use it?
What were you thinking, feeling?
First time I had to use it in earnest I was working front end at a post office and there was a random guy doing maintenance behind me in the back area of the office. Barely said a word to him, he barely said a word to me. I was fairly busy and he seemed kinda gruff.
Bit later all of a sudden he taps me on the shoulder pretty aggressively, I turned and was getting ready to give him some not-polite words about touching me like that and how he better not damn well do that again but I stopped when I saw the look on his face.
He just says, “call 911.”
I look blankly at him, getting some mental whiplash, and just dumbly go, “what?”
Him, “I’m having a fucking heart-attack, CALL 911!”
That got through so I called them, gave them the info. He went back into the office and laid down.
I was a bit in shock myself and just looked at the customers in line in front of me and said to the woman, “he’s having a heart attack, sorry.”
Honestly think I could’ve handled the situation better, at least gone back and been more empathetic but I was caught between him, customers, and making sure I was visible so I could wave the paramedics to where they needed to go.
The post office there was tucked into the back corner and most of the store didn’t even know about it until I told them later that day.
Never heard anything after, no clue if the guy survived, or not. Didn’t see him again either way.
You?
000 here is Australia. First time was a school friend came off his bike and dislocated his kneecap. Second was when I flayed my left arm. Third was when my cousin got home drunk as a skunk after rolling out of a moving taxi and getting pretty banged up. Fourth was to report a fire on the side of the highway during bushfire season.
In Australia we don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for an ambulance or for medical care. My friend who dislocated his kneecap was taken to hospital free of charge and had a quick surgery and immobilisation of the knee.
When I flayed my arm it was a fairly gory laceration down to the bone and required surgery to fix.
Overall the staff were extremely professional and understood what was happening quickly. They provided great advice and organised for help to arrive promptly. My experience with the ambulance was great, same with the whole hospital system, and I am happy to pay taxes for it.
Not exactly 911, but somewhat similar. A few years ago my wife & I were in a rental SUV while on vacation. It was a fairly new car with only something like 2000 miles on it. We were in the third lane of a 4 lane highway when a drunk driver hit us from behind with almost no warning. It caused our car to spin 360 degrees across 3 lanes before coming to a stop in the breakdown lane.
Within about 5 seconds of the car coming to a stop we heard a voice asking if we’d been in an accident and were we ok. It turns out the rental car had one of those OnStar types of services. We were so pumped full of adrenaline that it was all just a blur as we tried to remember what highway we were on, near what exit, etc. We were so panicked… Luckily a state trooper on a routine patrol stopped maybe a minute later so we didn’t have to keep trying to figure out how to tell the OnStar person where we were.
I was a teen, staying up late, probably watching videos on my phone when I heard arguing from down the street. I peeked out of my bedside window. I couldn’t really see them, but it was a couple who got lost at night. I listened to them arguing for some time, annoyed at first, trying to figure out if I could help them somehow, or could at least let them know to tone it down. I couldn’t make everything out, but I believe at one point the woman shouted “hit him”. It took me a moment to summon the courage to call the police, wondering if this was really an emergency, but as they were still arguing I called it in, nervously shaking.
I told them that I felt the woman was threatening the man, and they agreed to send someone over. Ten minutes later they got back into the car and drove off before the police arrived.
First time living alone. Neighbor had some unwelcome company. Gun shots ensued. I laid down in the bathtub and called 911 for the first, and hopefully, last time. Not a great night.
At that same place, a guy once knocked on my back window to ask if I wanted to smoke meth with him. I have never smoked meth and this was the first and only time ive ever seen this man. I asked him wtf his problem was and he said he was hiding from the cops which opened up so many more questions than I wanted to actually ask him. So I told him about a secluded spot (allegedly/parody/etc) down the very narrow alley he definitely struggled to fit into and he crab walked the rest of the way down, never to bother me again. I fucking hate texas.
According to the training at various jobs I’ve held, if gunshots are likely to be a threat, you should lay down wherever is available and put your knees under your chest to kink up your body.
The reasoning given was that bullets tend to travel in a straight line, so if you minimize the straight lines in your body, you’re in less danger. This never really made sense to me, but it’s what I was officially told.
If you were in something like a cast iron tub, that might protect you, but I doubt any modern tub would make much of a difference.
I’m glad you survived your experience!
I’ve never had to be the one to call, which is good, my brain and words would just be going “the thingy is doing thingy! Help!”
Closest as we smelled burning in the house and called the non emergency number. Fire department is literally within walking distance but they sent an entire truck…
A wooden spoon had fallen in the dishwasher and into the heating element. It was smoldering.
I was in a car accident. On my way back to the office from lunch out and this woman made a left turn from the opposite side in front of me. I basically t-boned her at 50-55mph. We were both okay, just shocked, but our cars were blocking the intersection. She kept saying I was going too fast and that she was driving home from church. I just sat down on the sidewalk waiting for cops and tow truck to show up. Funny enough I remember, even though my car couldn’t go anywhere, I turned off the engine, got out, and still locked the car.
I had to hitch a ride with the tow truck to their office so I at least had some shelter (middle of summer with no shade around) and wait for a taxi to pick me up. The other woman had her husband pick her up.
First time? Uhh. I think it was a car crash that rolled an SUV onto our driveway.
Since then, a couple wildfires, usually already reported, but I don’t want the bystander effect to cause the fire to spread. Several other car crashes, one I parked in front of a motorcycle that went down and another where a drunk man took down a street light and got his car stuck. One I directed others to call for a heart attack and another I was doing CPR and had someone else call for a cardiac arrest.
Never been scared to call, usually just what had to be done. I learned some time that it was better for a dozen people to call than for no one to, assuming someone else would call. It’s not like there is a downside to calling.
I was driving on the highway when the truck in front of me started swerving subtly and strangely. I told my copilot that the truck driver was probably texting.
As I changed lanes to pass the truck, I asked my copilot if they could see the truck driver texting. But I couldn’t pass the truck because the truck swerved violently to the lane I was going to use.
That’s when it hit me: this driver was very drunk. I immediately grabbed my phone and gave it to my copilot and told them to call the police. I was horrified because the truck was massive and we were getting close to a highway exit that sometimes has traffic.
We gave the police the details: the license plate, the location, the way the guy was driving, and they said they were going to send someone.
I stayed behind the truck for a couple of minutes. We didn’t want to pass him and have him crush our car. So we just looked at how this drunk guy swerved, accelerated, and broke erratically.
After some time, we finally got to the area with traffic, and luckily the truck driver stopped and didn’t crash into anything. We heard sirens behind us and that’s when I decided to finally pass the truck and keep driving.
I’ve called for drunk or similarly erratic drivers a few times. One of them was in a tanker truck and had several near-misses before he found a place to stop. The cops started following and he tightened up his driving. I’m not sure if they actually contacted him.
Second worst phone sex of my life
15 years ago, young student, I’m walking home around midnight. In the middle of a bridge I see a human shape jumping in the water. I’m not 100% sure. I ask a group of people further up on the bridge if they saw anything, they didn’t, but said I still should call 112.
One or two police cars came, and then one (or 2?) fire truck. Lots of people. Some went with full diving equipment in the water.
They couldn’t find anyone, said it was surprising as the water was very low. The fireman captain gave me the stinkeye.
Police had left their lightbar on and the car wouldn’t start (I think that was the reason) so I helped to push.
I had to come to the police station and tell what I saw many, many times.
Only years later did I realize I was being interrogated, to find out if my story had holes. I was quite naive (dumb works too).I wasn’t drunk, depressed, or had any kind of weird fantasies that would make me want to invent a story. It’s the only time I called the cops in my life.
All cops were friendly, even though they must’ve thought I was lying or had too much imagination.
Did someone jump? Now I think not. But at the time I really thought there was a possibility, and I wouldn’t take any chances. I just didn’t realize how many people and resources would be involved.
I forgot: I called two more times recently because my phone screen would not turn on, and apparently there’s a setting in LineageOS to call the emergencies if you fiddle with the buttons, so as to make the situation even worse, and then there’s a voice telling you you’re about to talk to someone and you can’t hang up! (Edit: I suppose they would call back in any case).
Happened twice before I found the setting. So yeah, I wasted their time, again.
Family argument got so loud and I got scared, like it felt like there was about to be a fight, or maybe there was already a fight… memory is blurry… I remember one of those incidents, either my parents or my older brother threw objects at each other…
I called and didn’t feel brave enough to actually say anything, just hung up. Nothing happened.
Oh jeez the flashbacks are coming back…
this happens a lot, I would often just have 911 ready
it’s not like I trust cops, there’s no other option, so I was just yolo-ing it, I was scared, idk what I’m supposed to do.
one time I got through and like just let the phone listen to the argument in the background, but then I got so scared I hung up
again, nothing happened, I was more afraid of my parents getting mad at me for getting the law involved.
its always just parents vs older brother arguments…
you gotta understand, this is the brother that I remember when I was like 5 or something, he tied me up with zipties, and once I got so scare of him chasing me around the house, my undeveloped brain made the stupid decision to just leave the apartment and I went looking for my mother at her workplace.
I think I hung up on 911 because I still… dispite being a decade here, felt alien to this place. Abusive family members felt more “closer” than everyone else in society.
wtf
If we were still in China, I might’ve have the courage to actually say “family violence” into the phone. (and probably get ignored since China doesn’t care about family violence anyways)
oh fuck fuck fuck that memory was so scary.
not just once, it happened multiple times
thinking about it makes my heartbeat go up
Childhood trauma is horrible, I’m sorry ): you deserved a safe home, and it’s tragic you felt so scared that you had to call the cops.
I don’t think I ever have.
I got a really bad stomach infection and was going to wait until my mum got there the next day but I hadn’t been eating or keeping anything down and didn’t think I could drive since I could only stay up for very short times so I ended up calling 911 to go to the hospital and I couldn’t stop apologizing to the dispatcher.
I felt bad cause I felt like I was wasting their time but they got me there and I got to ride in an ambulance.
Just commenting so hopefully I remember to check back in on this thread later, I work in a 911 dispatch center.
Currently I’m on my break, but we’re dealing with some high winds knocking down trees and power lines and such and things so things are kind of blowing up for us (sometimes literally, more than a few transformers have popped) if things die down later I’ll try to chime in, answer questions, maybe share some stories.
Neat, be interesting to hear from the horses mouth. (At it were.)
Dunno if I could do your job, good on ya. All the times I’ve had to phone 911 they’ve been calm and collected and it’s certainly helped keep me calm as well. (The above story sadly is just the first time.)
Driving between fields on a bike with my 5yo son on the back.
Noticed a person lying between the mounts of an asparagus field a little bit off, not moving.
Some offroad meters later we were standing besides him.
I checked for life signs, he was still alive, but not responsive.
Temperatures were around 10°C and sinking, so potentially life-threatening.
Called 112 (German emergency line). Lady on the other end was very friendly and well structured, asked me all the relevant details.
Just as she was about to send an ambulance, the man suddenly moved.
I kept the emergency line active while I tried to bring him to full consciousness and talk to him.
After a while he stood up slightly unsteady.
Did speak almost no German (nor English), only some Eastern European language.
But was enough to make it clear to me that he just had been drinking a little too much and felt fit to go home by himself.
Told the lady on the line that the crisis had been averted. She was very positive overall and told me that I had done exactly the right thing by calling.Don’t be afraid to call!
