Earlier this month Erin took a nasty fall and really hurt her head, resulting in a call to 999 and me being extremely scared. After I posted a couple of pictures to Facebook I had one pretty crappy comment, which I honestly wasn’t expecting. I didn’t post the photos to ask for sympathy but instead to show what Erin had done and how. Anyway, the comment said ‘I thought ambulances were for life-threatening emergencies?‘ I thought I would write a post about calling 999 and why other parents had done in the past.
The comment really annoyed me because I knew that calling 999 was the thing to do in a medical emergency. The NHS website says it should be used ‘when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.’
The thing with calling 999 is that you’re not guaranteed to have an ambulance sent out to you. The phone operator will help to make a decision. If you think you have a medical emergency I would always call just to be safe. Better to have called than not and something be seriously wrong.
I called 999 for Erin as she fell and hit her head on our stone fireplace. She had a quite large hole in her head and her face was covered with blood. The bleeding was not stopping and she was screaming so much. I don’t drive and I couldn’t have got her somewhere for medical attention. Our nearest hospital is 15 minutes away and they don’t have an A&E department. If I couldn’t have stopped the bleeding, what else was I going to do!?
Some wonderful bloggers have shared their experiences with me about why they have needed to call 999 for their own children:
My daughter had a febrile convulsion and ended up unconscious. She was fine within an hour! Katy Kicker
We were food shopping and I stupidly let my two year old sit in the main part of the trolley with the shopping – I turned to look at something and she fell out head first on to a tile floor. The noise was horrific so the store called an ambulance – they checked her and all was fine – most horrible moment of motherhood so far ! I will never let them sit in the main part again ! Ankle Biters Adventures
My son’s temperature spiked, after we put him in a cool bath. He went all floppy. Complete panic! Apparently it shouldn’t be a cool bath. Just sponged down. Renovation Bay-Bee
Something many people don’t realise actually happens but my son has special needs and can be extremely physically aggressive we’ve had to ring 999 for police and ambulance before to try to calm him when he’s been dangerous and both physically very aggressive and then suicidal and angry with himself. He’s 11 now this was age 10 and could well happen again sadly. Just Average Jen
My son suffered with anoxic reflex seizures as a baby/toddler. He had his first one when he was 8 months old and stopped breathing. The wait for the ambulance was absolutely terrifying whilst my partner did CPR . Coffee, Cake, Kids
My daughter stopped breathing, she fell of a toddler chair and hit head guess, breathed out but never in. I picked her up and she went floppy and I watched her eyes roll back.
It was the worst moment of my life and although she did start breathing again, the ambulance service was so busy they took over an hour to get to us. (We tried cancelling it and saying we would go to a&be so someone who really needed it could have it, but they didn’t cancel it). Mummies Waiting
Twice for us. Once was during an asthma attack at school. I got there quickly as just around the corner but ambulance was also called. Second time was when eldest daughter broke her ankle in the snow playing with friends. It was pretty horrific conditions and I felt so bad an ambulance was called. Wasn’t until they took her boot off I could see that it was a really bad break with a displaced bone. The paramedics were amazing as it was so cold and tricky to get pain relief into her Emma and 3
My son had a febrile convulsion when he was 3 months old. One minute he was fine and the next his temp shot right up and he was shaking uncontrollably. I had to run next door I was a mess, my neighbour called 999 and they sent over an ambulance. Honestly the scariest experience in my life to date: Max and Kai
One day, when little man was younger & his cot was still on the top height, I was in his room sorting his clothes and he was playing in his cot,
My little girl fell off a ride on toy once, she had try to hook her leg over and had fallen off straight onto her head! I went to grab her up and realised there was no cry she was just laying face down on the floor. I scooped her up and realised she was totally out, her eyes were rolling in the back of her head and her lips were turning blue, I just couldn’t get a response from her! I immediately rang 999 who were amazing and came out without 5 minutes (rapid response) shortly followed by an ambulance! Very scary time though and thankfully she was all fine just a bit confused by the situation! Tantrums to Smiles
I have rang 999 once in the past for my girls. When my now teen was a toddler and she fell off the sofa banged her head and stopped breathing. They were with us in minutes. Obviously by the time they arrived she was breathing again but took us to get checked on. She was fine x