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Original poster

Have you ever phoned 999

242 replies

Woolywolf · 15/08/2021 21:10

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

OP posts:
unlimiteddilutingjuice · 15/08/2021 22:40

There used to be a group of junkies who would jack up behind a shop my boyfriend worked in.
I called an ambulance when one of them overdosed.
I gave really crappy directions because I was so freaked out.
The guys pal did CPR for something like 20 minutes until the paramedics got there. He came around with an adrenalin shot, thank God.
The next time I saw them all, I mentioned the dramatic events and they seemed to barely register it. It was a week later and other horrible and dramatic things had happened since then. They seemed completely desensitised to tragedy. Sad

imnottoofussed · 15/08/2021 22:40

Twice. Won't go into full details as may be outing but one was fire and the other police

BrilliantBetty · 15/08/2021 22:40

Saw and heard a woman being attacked. Called 999 the police arrived in 2 mins.

Several other times too.

confusedaf29 · 15/08/2021 22:42

Frequently. Unfortunately- my son has epilepsy

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 15/08/2021 22:42

Oh God, completely forgot. I also called 999 because my house was on fire.
That was much less distressing than the overdose though.
Because by the time I made the call we were all outside the house so I knew no one was going to die.

NiceTwin · 15/08/2021 22:43

Police; kids on hard shoulder, my car hit by a milk wagon on the M6, witnessed a car having a blowout on the motorway and ended up the wrong way in lane 1.

Fire; when I could smell smoke in the house about 3am. Looked round the house and outside in the barns, couldn't find anything and convinced myself it was in the attic. Ends up it was a moor fire over the hill that I couldn't see.
Dh lit a fire, the brazier overturned and set fire to really dry trees that were next to my horses stable.
Driving past a house and seeing flames coming out of the chimney.

MichelleScarn · 15/08/2021 22:43

Many times! Miss working at a city hospital with police on site, now its the 999 and wait faff

stilldumdedumming · 15/08/2021 22:45

A few times. Last time just last night as a neighbour was having a serious mental health crisis that was dangerous. Also dp brain haemorrhage, a knife fight outside my house, dp needing further emergency treatment, friend having a heart attack, significant oil
Leakage in dual carriageway turned it into a nice rink. Each time I got flustered. Except for dp brain haemorrhage as I had to stay so calm to get my point across.

Graphista · 15/08/2021 22:45

Several times!

I've been caught in 3 fires (the joys of bedsit living, crappy landlords and drunk/high other tenants!) , a holdup (shop I worked in, thieves not the brightest as we didn't even very often get paid in cash! Large purchase values but that meant most customers paid by card or cheque! They got away with the princely sun of £30-odd! The owner and I were the only ones there and she passed out as soon as they left) and I've called a number of times as the person to come across people who've collapsed through ill health (I'm an ex nurse so I'm often the person nearby with 1st aid knowledge) and as a witness to 2 major Rta's the worst was the motorcyclist who was hit by an idiot boy racer very hard and went sailing over the car! Miracle he wasn't more injured than he was! (Whiplash, broken wrist and cuts and scrapes but that was it!)

I also used to work as a 999 call handler many moons ago (before the nursing it's kinda what led me there) so I knew what info to give etc although it's changed slightly over the years.

The only time I cocked it up was when I had to call for a very sick dd once and I was a panicking mess myself! Couldn't remember my sodding address! (We'd recently moved in my defence)

GreenTeaBlackCoffeeAndRedWine · 15/08/2021 22:45

Once when we witnessed a crash on the M6.

AmazinglyGraceless · 15/08/2021 22:47

6 times, all ambulance.

Ds1 at 8 months when I fell holding him and he cracked his head on a table. I totally panicked.
Ds1 again at 16 months when he had a febrile convulsion.
Ds1 again at 2.5, another convulsion.
Ds3 at 6 months, breathing problems, bronchiolitis...technically it was the GP that dialled though.
999 for my dad when he was close to the end and I was physically incapable of moving him. Should have been SS really but they refused to help and I had no idea how to get him off the floor and no one else to call.
Ambulance for dh, suspected stroke. Thankfully wasn't, just a bad/protracted faint, suspected blood pressure dip.

northernlola · 15/08/2021 22:48

I've called twice when I've seen people in mental health crisis on bridges. I also called one night on the way back from work, in the early hours of the morning, when I saw a man standing very close to the side of the motorway. There was no obvious reason for him to be there, he was just staring out. No vehicle.

I'm a social worker so I've also had to call plenty of times when at work. Calling for police assistance etc.

YesILikeItToo · 15/08/2021 22:48

One I didn’t call in, but I wonder if I should have, was a quite bizarre sight of a man chasing another man. You do see people running and playing, but this was totally different, it wasn’t sporty or light-hearted in any way and they certainly weren’t both running for the same bus.

Whattodonow5 · 15/08/2021 22:48

Once when I was on shift as duty manager and a chef badly scalded himself.

Ambulance were great and very quick. Totally forgot I'd done it till I read this thread.

Hellocatshome · 15/08/2021 22:50

Lots of times.
Once when I was a child and my friend and I found a man dead in a car. I ran to the nearest phone box they ran to the village to get an adult. ( before Mobile phones).
When I was in the car with my Dad on a motorway and there was a huge pile up in front if us. We were the first car able to stop short and my Dad told me to call while he got out to try and help.
When I was at University and walking back into our street in the early hours after a night of drinking the house at the end of our terrace was on fire. We could see flames in an upstairs window and smoke coming out of the roof.
When I was at work and we heard a commotion outside, looked out to see a man in the car park with some sort of crowbar type thing smashing all the cars windows, some men in the office managed to overcome him and literally sat on him to stop him leaving until the police came.
When a car crashed into me on a mini roundabout and sent me spinning into a wall and I bounced back into the road into the path of a bus.
When there was a fight outside our house (route back to a housing estate from the pub so a regular occurence) and a man fell and cracked his head on the pavement after being punched, I honestly thought he was dead, he wasn't thank God.

TheVolturi · 15/08/2021 22:52

Yes, we had masked men trying to break into our house in the night. Police were there within about 2 mins.

Jaxhog · 15/08/2021 22:54

Yep. When my DH had a stroke. They arrived in less than 10 minutes - I was very impressed. (DH is ok now)

Hen2018 · 15/08/2021 22:55

Yes.

Ambulance - son with sepsis. Son after road accident. Son after long convulsion.

Police - car petrol stolen. Car stolen. Car number plates stolen. Motorbike stolen. Rural crime is a nightmare. Also for son getting mugged.

CornishTiger · 15/08/2021 22:57

Too many times! One week my call register was full of 999/101 calls.

Both work and personal.

Hen2018 · 15/08/2021 22:57

And when a motorbike crashed into the back of my car, knocking a wheel off and puncturing the petrol tank. We were on a large roundabout so needed the road closing when the tow truck came.

LindaEllen · 15/08/2021 22:58

I phoned when I first saw DP have a fit. I knew he had epilepsy, I knew he didn't need medical attention unless he banged his head or didn't stop fitting within 5 minutes, but I'd never seen it before and in the moment I found it terrifying and ended up phoning 999 out of instinct. They came and checked him over and were very nice about it and assured me I hadn't wasted their time, and told me how to deal with things if it happened again, and when I should call etc. I feel silly for ages afterwards and now deal with it myself when it happens.

Hen2018 · 15/08/2021 22:59

And a hideous call which took 40 minutes, where I had to give every single bit of information we could think of, to locate my teenage child’s friend, who was attempting suicide. That was bleak. Followed up by 3-4 more calls from a PC while we all searched.

Fullywhelmed · 15/08/2021 22:59

Yes - as a teen when at a work party a huge guy leapt on a little guy and his chair tipped backwards and the back of his head hit the wall so hard with their combined weight that I thought he might have a bleed.

Then found a person collapsed in the street on the way home after a night out. The paramedics found his medication in his sock. Apparently that's a common place people keep it.

Then when DS was 5 and choked on a rubber and we weren't sure if it was stuck in his windpipe or foodpipe (turned out to be the latter, luckily. Ambulance was there within 5 min)

Then most recently on the motorway driving behind a guy who was weaving so badly within the middle lane (which we watched him drive in for 15 miles) that he almost sideswiped us and two other cars. As we were on the phone he suddenly lurched two lanes left and went off at the junction. I am sure he was drunk or high.

Pascha · 15/08/2021 23:00

Twice outside work. Once for a. Poorly child and once for an accident.

Thisbastardcomputer · 15/08/2021 23:01

Quite a few times

Field on fire I could see from my window in the middle of the night.

Ambulance for then teenage son, severe asthma attacks

Found neighbours house had been broke into.

Saw a woman attacking a man with one of those crook lock things people used to have in their cars.