Have you ever made an enmergency call?

What is the number in other countries? It would be handy to know.

I've never rung it. Well I have, but I hung up before they answered.

I have never had to do this, although being a morbid fantasist, I often think about having to.

yep, i've had to ring for an ambulance loads (i lost count after about three).

the first time was when my granny collapsed in the house. she recovered in hospital where they diagnosed that she has suffered a stroke.

the subsequent times have been when my boyfriend has suffered from such bad hypoglycemia (low blood sugar - he's an insulin dependant diabetic) that glucagon injections don't bring him round. this hasn't happened in a good while as he's on a much better insulin regime now.

it's strange that, while riding along in an ambulance, though the primary thought in my head was "please god don't let my granny/boyfriend be about to die", there was a tiny voice in the back going "wow, this is what it's like being in an ambulance."

thankfully i've never had to be in an ambulance cos i was sick myself. i've never had to call any of the other emergency services.

i had to ring the ambulance for my best friend. it wasn't serious but it could have been

Riding in an ambulance is pretty cool (if you're not actually dying or with anyone who is dying, obviously). You can see out, but no one can see in! It's like being famous in a limo! (I am so easily pleased.)

I once saw some guy beating up another guy while a third guy watched, so I phoned the cops, who then arrested the guy who was being beaten up. I recognised the watcher as a chap who works in the Irish Film Centre in Dublin, so I theorise that the beatee was a bad person who had offended the IFC in some way, and the beater was a bouncer.

I also once phoned for an ambulance when a guy on a motorbike was knocked down.

I nearly did for an old lady who collapsed at a bus stop but someone else beat me to it.

My worst ambulance thing was one time when I was walking to the bus stop from school and an ambulance was whizzing down the road with its siren going. I found out later that my little brother was in it having snapped his leg playing rugby in Games, he was OK but had to have an op / pins in his leg etc. On a positive note this was shortly before my driving test and as I was taking it in Aylesbury I got lots of practice driving to Stoke Mandeville to visit him (I was a v. nice sister and took him choccy cake and Viz and stuff).

Plemnty of times as first aider closest to the front desk here.

Why is that your worst ambulance thing? Did you shout at the ambulance or something and feel really bad afterwards?

Once when I came home after a Saturday night out and found that my place had been burgled (?) -- it wasn't a life-or-death situation at that point but I couldn't find the nonemergency number.

Yes Nick of course I did. It's just that thing, before then (and since, too) whenever I saw an ambulance near where I lived I would think 'oh I hope it's not for anyone I know'. I thought that when I saw this particular one and it turned out it was for my brother :(

I once had to call 911 because I had a hangnail. they were mad!

i have never made a 911 call, but have been present at two serious accidents. the first one was in kansas city or somethin and i touched the neck of a dead woman, which was creepy. the other one was a couple of years ago and i stayed with one of the women who was injured, trying to keep her from moving around and such until the medics came. when they arrived, they were not very interested in the victims at first, but rather on making sure the cars weren't going to explode, which i had given very little thought to!

she ended up being ok, a few broken ribs and other bones, some internal injuries but alive. i sort of wanted to visit her, but only talked briefly on the phone. a strange little temporary bond from having somebody's blood on you for a while.

Bizarrely enough, I dreamed I dialed 911 last night. Heaven knows why, though.

My upstairs neighbor od-ed on cocaine and his wife flew down the stairs to ask me to dial 911 as they didn't have a phone and also to mind her kids

twice, both times at work

when i worked at subway a homeless regular bought a sandwich, sat in the booth, and collapsed. my co worker and i tried to wake him by shouting at him loudly, and them vigorously shaking him, but after about twenty minutes of unconsciousness we called 911, they used smelling salts and took him to the hospital

the other was accidentally at my telemarketing job, they had to come out and check even though i said it was an accident because i 'mightve been held hostage'

working secuirty in a downtown office tower i had down this half a dozen times, not at work i have done it three times-motorcycle crash, old drunk broken hip and man wandering down jasper with mulitple facial lacerations.

"I once had to call 911 because I had a hangnail. they were mad!"

In a bizarrelycyclicalironystylie I nearly had to call 999 for my gigglyextrahyperventilation when I heard a news item on complaints about dumb calls to emergency services. At "I can't find the remote control and there's someone on TV I don't like" I was chuckling, but by "there's two squirrels fighting in the garden" I was a wheezing fool.

I think it's like an annual list thing on slow news days, along with "weirdest accidents in the home"

But of course it's bad and I am v glad I haven't ever had to. Dial.

most recently : last week, calling the cops on my landlord, having phone torn out of my hands & out of the wall as i was doing it.

I was working in my back yard once and noticed smoke creeping out of the house over my back fence, so I called 911. The firetruck came a few minutes later and broke in, etc.

no. but last week at work some nutcase called the police in my office because his car failed its warrant of fitness inspection.

I've had to call 111 three times, once for each of the services.

First time was when I was a waitress and a customer at the restaurant fell over and hit their head and bled all over the place. Yuck that was hideous, and practically everyone fainted except me so I had to do first aid until the paramedics came. Paramedics are so cool, they just come in, sort everything out and leave, without any fuss or bother. As soon as they arrived, everyone just went back to eating their cod and whatnot.

Second time was when I saw some people set a field on fire by shooting skyrockets out a moving car window.

Third time was when I arrived at my friend's house and her stalker had broken in and was poking around in the kitchen rubbish bin while she slept in the next room. That was the scariest, I had to tell him to get the fuck out and then he wouldn't and then I woke up my friend and we ran into the secret corridor and locked the door and called the police.

I called an emergency plumber when I flooded my kitchen. I bet the service was better than if I needed an ambulance (cf. resuscitation after near-drowning in kitchen=swimming pool scenario).

I called 999 a couple of times when I was living in Leamington Spa. I saw a couple of thugs hanging around outside the Jet and Whittle pub with an iron bar - probably a steel bar, actually, as it glinted under the streetlight. I found it a bit disconcerting that the fuzz were more interested in taking down my particulars than investigating the potential crime.