To drink drive my neighbour to hospital?

[hanette]

So, had 2x 25 CL glasses of wine in pub w DH. He goes on to meet friend, I go to put D teenagers to bed.

Knock at door 11.10pm, neighbour asking me to take to A and E in car due to plummeting blood pressure and severe pains in left arm

I did - adrenaline kicked in - I tried to persuade them to call an ambulance or wait for my DH but they were so distressed I just took them in my car


Am shocked - am a rubbish driver anyway and have never driven after more than one glass of wine

So - was I over the limit? I had a plate of salmon and veg for din. And also WWTD?

Am shocked at myself and how I deffo felt different (less safe) behind the wheel.

[MurderOfGoths]

Ah yes, throwing made up facts in to the conversation totally proves your point

[IamInvisible]

If I had six units of alcohol I wouldn't be able to phone an ambulance let alone drive a car, tbh. Alcohol affects people differently.

I know I could have put the neighbour in a lot more danger by driving her in the car, regardless of wether I had had one unit or no units, so on that basis alone I would have called an ambulance.

[HerlockSholmes]

No-one was hurt, i hope your neighbour is ok, you made a very bad judgement call but i think you already know that or certainly will after reading the thread.

To me, common sense would say call an ambulance, but after alot of wine and adrenaline i can see where your common sense may have gone out the window. Part of the reason i never drink.

[5Foot5]

Do you drink to that level every night? If so your too drunk to make sensible decisions, I hope your dh is not drunk every night too.

and

Maybe its normal for some to drink the best part of a bottle of wine a night in charge of dc, its not behaviour I follow

Well deepfriedsage your abstemious habits do not seem to have impaired your ability to jump to unwarranted conclusions and make assumptions about people's lifestyles with insufficient evidence.

Nowhere has the OP said anything to suggest that this was anything but a night out, not her regular routine. An occasional night out where she drinks 2 glasses of wine (which as it turns out were smaller than originally reported) hardly makes her a p**shead. And you seem to have overlooked that her children are teenagers.

[50shadesofmeh]

You should have called ambulance for your neighbour

[Andro]

Apparently the majority here would ask the neighbour to wait while they go online and try to workout if they're a shade over or under the legal limit?!

Faced with the symptoms in the op I would have called an ambulance and tried to calm the distressed neighbours - drinking and driving (even when under the limit) really isn't going to make a potential medical emergency any better.

[shellbot]

5foot5 I think deepfriedsage has left the thread because apparently she's been 'flamed', 'by I suspect a load of alcoholics in denial'

I'm planning on having some wine tonight to best get AA on speed dial

[captainmummy]

She was on earlier - to bitch at me about how i was more upset about my 'ritual' being disrupted;- i assume my 'ritual of drinking on saturday nights' which was interrupted by my neighbours dd bleeding from numerous lacerations. (in fact we were in bed (1am) and she interrupted far more than that!)

[Blu]

I would have called an ambulance. Whether I had been drinking or not.

Because I know that it is better for a team of trained paramedics to deal with symptoms like that as soon as they arrive than have me get her to walk to car, spend the journey with no assistance, walk through A&E, etc with no medical assistance. All of which could have killed her had it been a stroke or heart attack.

[Bowlersarm]

deepfriedsage horrible post.

OP you made the wrong choice. Luckily nothing untoward happened. I doubt you will do the same thing again now.

Hope your neighbours ok now.

[youretoastmildred]

I think the OP must have been mistaken about the glasses being 25cl (as she suggests) because it does sound as if either she was a bit more compos mentis than you would expect, or that she habitually drinks like a fish (as sage was suggesting).

[Bowlersarm]

I wouldnt call drinking two large glasses of wine as 'drinking like a fish'. Two thirds of a bottle is not an exceptional amount over the course of an evening. Many couples share a bottle of wine occasionally...or frequently I suppose.

It is an exceptional amount if you drive after consuming it.

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

No grumpywino (apt name) i havent. But i have experienced the horror of comforting 3 children who have just been cut out of the car that their dead father was still trapped in and that their mother was fighting for her life in. I then comforted them at their fathers funeral because their mother was too badly injured to attend with them. i have experienced that totally preventable horror because someone else made the same decision OP made last night.

[HicDraconis]

I don't know how you can tell who is an emergency services worker and who isn't unless we all declare our professions Grumpywino - I am one also (medic, anaesthetics & intensive care, I get called to ED to help out with major trauma cases). I seriously hope my post didn't come over as realistic and understanding because it damn well wasn't meant to.

The only safe limit to drive with is zero.

For calculation of metabolism, take total units and turn them into hours. You start metabolising it an hour after you have stopped drinking. So if you have had 6 units and you finish drinking at 12pm, you'll be back to zero at 7am. If you finish drinking at 9pm and get into the car at 1am you'll still have 3 units on board. Which is why people don't realise they're still over the legal limit when they drive to work after a heavy night out.

I agree with the PP who said the decision to drive was in part a bad judgement call due to the alcohol.

How would you have felt if she'd had a cardiac arrest in the car and died OP? Most likely rhythm would be one that needs shocking out of and cars don't carry defibs unless you're also a basics gp.

How would you have felt if you'd ploughed into someone else through impaired perceptions?

Thankfully I've not had to cope with it personally, but at work I've seen people and families destroyed by people who thought they had a good reason for driving after drinking.

Taxi if it's not serious enough for an ambulance. 999 if it is.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

I have been in a life threatening situation. There was an obvious and very simple solution to save my life. I didn't do it. My (then new boyfriend now) dh had to tell me to.

The blindingly obvious sensible solution didn't occur to me in the panic.

I don't think anyone who says "I would never" or "I would always" is actually correct.

[agnesf]

I am interested in this thread because I have often wondered about this. Where we live it is virtually impossible to call a taxi and is about 7 miles to nearest A&E.

As I'm the only driver in our house I wonder whether I should never drink at home just in case anything happened to one of my nearest and dearest that warranted a trip to hospital but not serious enough to need ambulance e.g. broken arm.

It would be embarrassing to go round to neighbour and basically say - I'm a bit pissed can you drive to A&E for me.

Suffice to say this has never happened but it could have done - e.g. on Xmas day etc.

Is anyone else in this situation?

By the way - as far as OP is concerned - its not always easy for non medical people to know if something is serious or not - maybe she would have been better calling 111. The one in our area is v good and got a paramedic to our house pretty fast for something that I wouldn't have thought needed one but actually in retrospect realise that it did.

[Pobblewhohasnotoes]

I don't know how you can tell who is an emergency services worker and who isn't unless we all declare our professions Grumpywino

Precisely. I'm a nurse and I voted for calling an ambulance. I may not work in a&e, but still, it's common sense if you think someone's having a heart attack, to me anyway. Especially if the OP lives in a city. What if it was rush hour and you got stuck in traffic?

[sicily1921]

plummeting blood pressure and severe pains in left arm

I don't think you have to be Dr Greg House or Charge Nurse Charlie to appreciate that this could be quite serious

Joking aside, you may be thinking you are doing your neighbour a favour but next time say 'sorry but no' as you could have killed someone on the road.

[whoneedssleepanyway]

deepfried let me add unpleasant to that too!

[hanette]

I checked again and the pub definitely only sells wine in 175cl glasses, further to my earlier update

Many thanks to those wishing my neighbour well - she's back home now and will be treated as an outpatient. Lesson learned

Whilst I'm not surprised about the reactions to my driving last night, I am about some people's attitude to drinking in general

To answer several posters questions, do I drink 2/3 of a bottle of wine often? Yes, I don't think that's an outrageous amount, I'm certainly coherent and able to look after my teenagers!

25cl in France served in a carafe between 2 people? Blimey no wonder they're all so ruddy grumpy... (Joke!!!)

[Vikki88]

2/3 of a bottle of wine isn't an outrageous amount hanette. Anybody who says that it is is, frankly, being ridiculous.

[Bowlersarm]

Agree hanette that it isn't an outrageous amount.

Although I have learnt from Hic, that dissipation doesn't start until after you've stopped drinking which i didn't know. I thought dissipation started when the drinking of alcohol started, not when it ended.

[Oblomov]

I can't believe you did it. Did you not say to your neighbour, " I can't take you, I've been drinking"?

[PopiusTartius]

OP it was a bad decision, you've said that yourself, I don't think anyone else needs to pile in on that now.

But please PLEASE would everyone reading take note of what the medics have said (and yes, I am one too):-

If someone is complaining of chest and arm pain the most likely thing is a cardiac event of some kind. The MOST IMPORTANT thing is that they have access urgently to emergency care including defibrilators. Unless you have one of these in your boot, along with oxygen, adrenaline and a colleague, and are trained to use such things, please please please I beg of you: always call an ambulance. Life saving care can start as soon as they arrive. This will almost always be quicker than you can get them onto a trolley once you've arrived at A&E having negotiated the ring road, the car park and the check in desk.

Call 999.