My husband woke me last night because he had fallen and couldn't get up (he has Lewy Body Dementia--early stage on the dementia but quite a lot of Parkinson's symptoms). He hadn't been able to wake up our 22 year old son, who is home. I was able to get him up, but he was very weak and it took considerable experimenting to find a way to do it.
Makes me nervous because I am going away for a week tomorrow. So I did something I probably should have done sooner. I called the non-emergency number for my county's Emergency Medical Services, and gave them information. I told them what door to come to, my husband's diagnosis, and my cell phone number. The person I spoke to asked if I wanted to tell them the location of a hidden key and I said no, but we have push button code door locks so if my husband couldn't get up and called 911 he could tell them the code.
I asked about what if he just needed help up, wasn't hurt. The person said ask for the rescue squad, say you don't need an ambulance. The rescue squad can help him up, and they can call an ambulance if they think one is needed.
I hope this inspires others to make the call. I was told the information would be attached to our address in the 911 system, so any time we called 911 the information would come up.
Lloyd has Lewy's, too, but it doesn't make him fall. The myoclous makes him fall. He would never be able to make the call, but I suppose if someone else were with him, it might be a good idea.
pam, thanks for the reminder-it's something we all need to do. Because DH is on the project lifesaver program (gps ankle bracelet) thru the sheriff's office, they have attached a picture of DH as well as a summary of his condition to our telephone number/file, but they don't have all the other info which I need to give them.
We've been in the 911 system for a long, long time. The EMS people are fantastic. I always feel bad calling them for a non-emergency assist, but they are so kind and reassuring.
Non emergency calls are refered to as a "Public Assist" and is considered part of the job for EMS You should also know that every system is different. In Los Angeles county if you call 911 you will always get an ambulance. While the system understands there are non-emergencies, for 'safety's sake' (lawsuit avoidance) they always send everything to every 911 call.
It is wise to inquire into what YOUR 911/emergency system can do to store information about the special needs that exist at your adddress. However I also have to say that this is not availabe everywhere. I live & work in the LA County area and our system is just too huge to keep information like this. The database would be just too large and would need to be updated constantly. To make up for this responders are consistantly trained to recognize and react to whatever they find on arrival.
Where I live a med alert triggers an ambulance, a fire truck and sometimes even a police car. I'm first call on a neighbor's system. I live right across the street and by the time I call 911 the "crew" is already on the way. Once I showed the police how to easily break in they no longer send the police. The EMTs came so often that we got to know each other well and continue our last conversation.
I think our local fire rescue redefined service above and beyond. 5 or 6 years ago when DW still had the capability of placing a phone call she was attempting to call our daughter who lives in the 914 area code. DW dialed 911 by error. She attempted to explain the error and hung up. 911) called back to verify, I too explained the error. While on the phone with 911 personnel there was a knock on the door; is was the local police. They insisted on speaking to DW separately until they were sure she was ok and I was not a threat to her. Much like Bluuedaze, now years later, after numerous real calls for help, I have the dubious honor of being on first name basis with far too many, police officers, EMT's and ER Staff & MDs.