Was she BU to dial 999 to save her 5 year old (DM)

5 replies

Mitmoo · 19/08/2011 07:46

CAT!!

The couple who dialled 999 for ambulance to save their five-year-old without telling operator it was a cat.

The bizarre 999 call was received by East of England Ambulance Service on August 10 from a foreign couple.

The paramedic said they had been in the country a short time only and may have been confused, adding: ?We get a lot of callers with language barriers.

?We have a translation line we can use but you haven?t got time to do that in a potentially critical situation.?

I'm a cat lover but this is ridiculous, even if I were abroad you'd know the emergency services isn't for pets???

OP posts:

itisnearlysummer · 19/08/2011 08:03

Yes they were BU. 999 doesn't connect to any services for animals so wouldn't be any use.

And they were BU for deliberately deceiving the operator. Whatever language barriers they might have had. They managed to phone 999, so knew about that, and spoke enough English to communicate the problem. Don't believe they didn't know the English for cat.

DoingTheBestICan · 19/08/2011 08:09

Very unreasonable of them,surely they knew enough about the system to dial 999 so they could have easily said cat,saying that maybe they paniced & didnt know how to get hold of a vet?

Original poster

Mitmoo · 19/08/2011 08:17

I think they should be charged for all of the costs that have been incurred, that took an ambulance off the road that someone who was in a life threatening situation might have needed.

OP posts:

catgirl1976 · 19/08/2011 08:59

Of course they were BU. I adore my cats and I consider them my children furry family, but I still wouldn't call an ambulance for them.

Kladdkaka · 19/08/2011 09:40

Don't be too harsh without all the facts. They may have dialled 999 by dialing 112, the international emergency number which many countries use as standard and which also works in the UK. Also, without knowing their country of origin, you can't say for sure what service they expected. Lots of others countries have other services available through the emergency number. For example, here you can also call for an emergency priest.

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