How many times have you rang 999?

[TazzyDrunk]

Only once when I was about 8 for a bit of a joke.

3 times in nearly 40 years

1- next doors toddler daughter was having a fit. I was about 14. I knew nothing about toddlers having a fit with high temperatures.

2- a bloke fell over in front of me and smashed his head against the wall. There was blood everywhere.

3- a friend just collapsed on a night out - she wasn’t drinking. She couldn’t move and lost her speech, wet herself. It was frightening

when you get a call to say a child has been hit by a car at speed and you deal with that then move onto a call where a 46 year old man has been vomiting for 2 hours with no concerns beyond it's not nice I can see why they get frustrated (real examples!)

This. I've never felt anything like the frustration of coaching someone through CPR on their baby shortly followed by getting abused by a man who couldn't get through to his gp for the cold he'd had for 2 weeks and decided it needed an ambulance.

4 times. I saw a car burst into flames, there were a gang beating one guy in the street, and when we were burgled (before the days of 111 non emergency) and when my dad was seriously ill with heart failure. Sadly he never came home and died a couple of weeks later.

Twice. Once when an ex came home absolutely battered, he'd tried riding home drunk on his pushbike, fell off and was covered in blood. He was totally bladdered, incoherent and fell through the door. I had no idea what had happened.

Once when I saw a car on fire just joining a motorway. DH ran out to help and I called 999.

Oh and I remembered another time - when a mum friend spilt hot tea on her baby and was in a total panic, I called for her as she couldn't speak.