Was I wrong to call 999?

[adamadamum]

Last week my daughter (aged 7 but has special needs, a rare disorder which makes her more like a 3yr old at best) managed to jump onto a screw - yes, not a nail but a screw! (I am careful about safety in case anyone was wondering, how the screw got onto the floor is a long story but I obviously hadn't known it was there!)

Anyway judging by the size of the head of the screw it looked big, and was embedded deep into her foot. I'm a single mother with no family nearby and I don't drive. The hospital is two bus rides away and I didn't have taxi money (I usually make sure I have a kitty for emergencies but had to dip into it to visit my mother before she died (which she sadly did, yesterday). Plus it was a Sunday, so buses were running once an hour!

When the young woman who works in the local shop asked why my daughter had a poorly foot, I told her, and said I cried in the ambulance. She obviously thought I had done wrong in calling an ambulance, from the things she said "You'll be lucky if they don't charge you for that!"

Mind you, she also asked me why I cried! Needless to say, she doesn't have children.

So, do you think I was wrong to call 999?

[thelunar66]

Well I'd say from the sound of the injury, it was the correct thing to get her to A&E. Ambulance seems a bit OTT though, although I can see why you did it - lack of money, not car, nobody to ask a favour of.

[scurryfunge]

A little bit....an ambulance was probably not required on this occasion as urgent medical attention was not required.Could you not have phoned a friend to take you or braved the bus if it wasn't life threatening?

[tutu100]

I don't think in your circumstances you were wrong to call an ambulance. They get called out for much less. How long did you have to wait for it? Taking a child with a screw stuck in their foot to hospital by bus is not feasible.

Don't feel bad about what that lady said.

[CarGirl]

I'm glad someone else has said the obvious - how do you get a child who is 7 but you can only reason with like a 3 year old who is in pain and can't walk because of a screw embedded in her foot to hospital on a bus?????????

Can't carry her or pop her in a pushchair

[chesgirlNOTgriffins]

Ok not strictly reasonable to call 999 but given the circumstances I think its understandable and forgivable.

Considering the sort of calls they get I doubt any paramedic would be cross about attending your DD.

My OH got a call to 'watch me fall asleep' when he was a paramedic and I worked in A&E for years and remember grown men coming in by ambulance for bee stings, colds, hangovers etc.

I am very sorry to hear about your mum. What a horrible time you are having.

[adamadamum]

scurryfunge I had NOBODY to help. I am totally on my own. No family around, and no local friends who could help. I only have one friend who has a car, and she was away. What would you have done in the circumstances, bearing in mind that it looked like a big screw (thankfully it turned out to be smaller than the one I thought it was, but not that small), in a very small foot (the size of a 2 1/2 year old's foot)possibly into the bone? I had two options, take her to A & E by bus, and with the buses being as they are on Sundays, it might have taken up to three hours, or call an ambulance, explaining the situation.

I really didn't have anyone I could ask for help from. So they were the two options!

[NoseyNooNoo]

You weren't in the wrong. If I was in your situation I'd have done the same thing as you. How did the 999 operator react and the paramedics.

Don't feel guilty. You had no choice.

[adamadamum]

chesgirlNOTgriffins, thanks for that. Yes, not the best time, but it was expected several weeks ago so it's a relief in a way.

[scurryfunge]

If you had no choice then that is what you had to do....doesn't mean it is an effective use of the ambulance service though, sorry.

[Sithmummy]

Perfectly reasonable. My son fell and cut his head playing in the back garden aged 2. I walked him to GP (10 mins) only to be told by snitty receptionist that no-one would be available for an hour. So, taxi to Walk-in centre (15 minutes) where we waited for another 40 minutes in the queue. When we finally saw the nurse, she asked me why I hadn't gone straight to A&E, said "Well it's too late for stitches now. I'll do what I can." Aaaargh!

When I told my neighbour about harrowing sequence of events, she said a similar incident with her boy but no money in the house, she'd phoned 999. Paramedics were there in 2 minutes and when she apologised for calling them out for 'nothing' they told her they would rather come and fix someone up, however minor the accident, than not be able to do anything because they hadn't been called in time.

[GrimmaTheNome]

If you'd called NHS direct they'd have probably called the ambulance for you under the circumstances.

[adamadamum]

NoseyNooNoo the 999 operator was fantastic, totally understanding and certainly didn't give me the impression that she thought I was wasting emergency services time.

Also, the lovely paramedics certainly didn't seem to think so either. It's just that comment that has annoyed me!

I'm not one to go dialling 999 for silly reasons, in fact if I can I think of other options. But I obviously explained what had happened to my daughter and would not have expected them to come to us before someone having a heart attack or something. It's just that I had little choice, and it did need attending to in reasonable time! As it happened she had to have it removed under sedation, poor darling.

[thisisyesterday]

I think it would have been more reasonable to call the hospital and ask for an ambulance rather than 999, as it wasn't an emergency.
also, they may provide some sort of hospital transport, lots of places do

but i can totally understand why you did it, and you didn't have much choice on how to get there.

I rang for an ambulance when my mum, who had recently had a knee replacement, slipped and fell in the kitchen. her new knee bent the wrong way and she felt something "go" and was scremaing in pain

they refused to send one as it wasn't life threatening.

[adamadamum]

I have to say I find it interesting that only one poster has said anything about the fact that my mother died on Sunday. And thank you chesgirlNOTgriffins for that.

I know that's not what the post is about but I certainly find it interesting.

It's called Mumsnet isn't it? My mother was a mum.

[DreamTeamGirl]

I think it was reasonable, especially as your DD has needs you understand best

I am so sorry for your loss also, I lost my dad 5 weeks ago and am still adjusting xx

[Greensleeves]

I think you had no reasonable alternative

in fact no alternative at all

and your daughter needed urgent medical attention

which is EXACTLY what the ambulance service is for

don't give it another thought, you haven't wasted anything or anybody's time!

Hope your dd's foot is better soon

[Greensleeves]

I think you had no reasonable alternative

in fact no alternative at all

and your daughter needed urgent medical attention

which is EXACTLY what the ambulance service is for

don't give it another thought, you haven't wasted anything or anybody's time!

Hope your dd's foot is better soon

[Greensleeves]

I missed the bit about your mum adamadamum

sorry

[adamadamum]

DreamTeamGirl thanks, sorry for yours too. It's a hard thing to adjust to, isn't it?

And Greensleeves as well, thanks, I kind of agree. I wouldn't expect priority over heart attacks or car crashes etc., but that doesn't mean it's not something that doesn't need an ambulance. Anyway, nobody at any time suggested in any way that I did the wrong thing. Not the 999 op's, not the paramedics, not any A & E staff. Just some silly girl in the local shop! Unlikely as it is (I hope!!) If it happened again I would call 999 again.

I imagine if I HAD forced her to suffer for hours on two buses, there would be a netmum or two posting a moan about the neglectful mum who made her poor crying child endure such a long journey, bleeding and wailing and disturbing the other passengers!!!!!

[adamadamum]

Thanks Greensleeves.

[adamadamum]

Oops I mean mumsnetter obviously.

[thisisyesterday]

i too missed the bit about your mum in your OP. sorry about that

I am pretty sure, as I said before, that you can ring the hospital and request an ambulance, or ask to use hospital transport service (most run one).
that way you'd get the ambulance but you wouldn't need to use the 999 service to get it.

hope dd's foot is feeling better today

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

I am sorry about your mum

it's over, you called the ambulance, don't dwell on it and beat yourself up, please, be kind to yourself at this hard time!

I had to take DD to out of hours on Saturday, I was sent a taxi and sent home in one as I didn't have any transport/cash on me, I am feeling guilty about that but she was really ill and I wasn't thinking straight. Anyway if they hadn't thought you needed the ambulance they wouldn't have sent one, i'm sure!!

[gillybean2]

It is unlikely the bus driver would have allowed you to take your dd on the bus anyhow. Given that she was probably screaming in pain.
I personally wouldn't know how else to get an ambulance there either, other than by dialing 999. You were not unreasonable at all and in an emergency you dial 999. It was an emergency, and it could have been life threatening if she'd punctured an artery or gone into shock.
Don't listen to the woman at the shop, she wasn't there at the time!

[LutyensCBA]

I don't see why people would think an ambulance is unnecessary in this case? In hindsight, it's easy to say that it wasn't life-threatening, it didn't need immediate attention yada yada. But in the heat of the moment with a little girl screaming in pain and the head of a screw peeking out of her sole, no means of transport....really, what would anyone do? There was no way a layman could tell if the screw had punctured anything important, or if it was rusted and was poisoning the poor girl.

Ambulances are there for reasons like this. Don't worry too much about it.