Have you ever phoned 999

[Woolywolf]

If so when/why? I have, once when I panicked a bit after being mugged but luckily haven’t had to any other time

Yes, when I was 19/20 someone (I didn't know) during a beach party stopped breathing, they'd mixed sleeping tablets and alcohol. I dialled 999 then handed the phone to someone else as no one else knew how to do CPR.

I saved their life.

Twice...

First was when my dad suddenly lost all memory and kept repeating himself. Very scary and I was so flustered I actually called 911 🤦🏼‍♀️. It still works!

Second time I could smell burning coming from our shower. The house up the roads shower blew up a few months before (new build so internal fixings are similar) so I panicked and called fire brigade. Turned out to be a false alarm and I felt really awful for wasting their time but they were lovely about it.

Oh I have forgotten that I also phoned the police because a burglary was happening.

Just once, as I was about to give birth in my living room, which I did as they walked through the front door!

I can't count how many times. For so many different things, car crashes (not me, I witnessed) drunk drivers, people injuring themselves, person who had a fit, someone having a stroke, people trying to break into my house, being threatened by someone who parked on my driveway, and the last time was when my mum died in my arms.

Yes. DS went into anaphylactic shock after eating peanut butter. I didn't know he was allergic to peanuts then.

Once, when I saw a car screech to a halt outside a house and four guys with baseball bats get out and stalk towards the house.

Also, I phoned the police when I found my dad at his home deceased. I can't remember whether I phoned 999 or the local police number, or even if it was me who dialled. I definitely spoke to the call handler though, and remember feeling really protective of the officers (PCOs at first) who attended the scene as it was really horrible and I felt awful they had to see it.

Yes, 4 times. Police 3x, fire once.

When I put hit ashes from the bbq into the bin as a kid and it set fire to a Lelandi hedge

Three times for my daughters with breathing issues

When we were behind an accident on the motorway

Yes, A man in our street was rumoured to have been caught with indecent images of children, Nothing proved of course. A group of residents of the street decided to jump him, Was absolutely horrendous to watch and I genuinely thought they were going to kill him.

Yes a few times. Once when we found a bloke seriously worse-for-wear collapsed in the street, a house fire, a hit and run car crash and when my son burnt himself quite badly.

Twice...

Once when a man ran past our office with a crossbow

The other was when I was a student and woke up at around midnight - I was lying on my back in bed directly underneath a sky light and there was a man on the roof staring at me. To say it freaked me out would be the understatement of the century.

My housemate at the time rang them once on my behalf as I came home at 3am drunk and hysterical as a taxi driver had tried to sexually assault me.

Yes when I found my DM dead, she died naturally and I found her on the floor when she hadn't answered the phone one evening

Yes, all three emergency services, and several times. A variety of reasons but spread over 45+ years, so not unusual - had my car broken into, field fire, that sort of thing.

I'd be surprised if people get to middle age without having called 999 for something or other.

I call an ambulance at least once a week. Work in a school and we have a pupil with a health condition.

Phoned the fire brigade years ago for an out of control fire on waste land near where I lived.

I'm not sure how many times I've called. The ones I can remember off the top of my head: 1. Herd of escaped cows on a trunk road. 2. Elderly driver who had clearly failed to successfully join the dual carriageway so was just sitting without hazards on, half in the end of the slip road, half in the carriageway. 3. A driver in a van stopped in a live lane of a smart motorway - police didn't know, smart functions hadn't worked, he was bloody lucky he hadn't been hot, 4. Car crash in front of my eyes, chap was off duty ambulance crew, must have had a medical episode. He ended up 20m down an embankment, unconscious and breathing but asphyxiating on his own seatbelt. The last one I can't remember if I called or if someone else did, and that was when a man crashed into a pond in front of me and other by standers. That was very stressful. The last one was pulling a person out a river but I was only five so only a bystander there. I think that's it so far...

Several times....

Elderly neighbour trapped under her car - ambulance

Drunk driver flipped his car in front of me - fire, police and ambulance

Arson attack at the church next door 2 days before my wedding - fire

3yr old days Asthma attack - ambulance

Horses loose on motorway slip rd - police

And recently many times for an elderly relative who falls on a regular basis - ambulance

Once, when my sister and I were teens we found a homeless man flat on his back on the green by our house with a pee patch on his trousers, he looked like he had passed out. We asked him if he was OK and he did not respond so we called 999 from my sister's mobile, they dispatched an ambulance and we sat near him until they arrived. When the ambulance arrived and the paramedics were walking up to us the man just stood up and walked off, he didn't say a word to anyone.

The paramedics gave us a telling off about wasting thier time we were just two kids who honestly thought someone was in trouble.

Once when I was flagged down on a motorway by a lady whose husband was having chest pains.

Once when a boy was sat on the railings of a bridge over a road.

When a very drunk man was attacking a bus driver.

And last week when a barefoot elderly lady was walking along a busy A road which didn't have a pavement, not far from a hospital.

No, but I've answered a fair few!

Multiple times

Once for a patient on a home visit with dangerously high blood pressure (I’m a midwife and thankfully that’s the only time I’ve needed an ambulance for a patient)

Once when I witnessed a man assault a woman in the street and take off with her child in its buggy

Once when I crashed my car and injured myself badly

Once when I saw what I thought was 2 men fighting on a bridge but when I got closer I realised it was one trying to prevent the other one from jumping

Several times when my mum has been ill and needed to go to A&E

Many many times - i worked as a warden a uni hall of residence for a few years. Mostly ambulances but also some police call outs.

Oh and once when I saw a truck driving the wrong way down a dual carriageway

Once when going past a house on fire, once for a car on fire outside my home at just gone midnight (it was arson), once when a woman was arguing with her partner outside my house and he dragged her down the road, then twice at work when I've had children having fits, one was a febrile convulsion, the other epilepsy

No, never. Reading this thread, I feel I’ve been rather lucky.