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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

ambulance...poss broken ankle... wtf

94 replies

ghostspirit · 03/03/2015 16:33

omg was on my way home from work. daughter calls to say she has hurt ankle she thinks it might be broken. her boyfriend has called an ambulance.... i started ranting at her that you do not call an ambulance for things like that. then she told me she was told they won't send her an ambulance for that reason... i told her to rest her foot wait till i get in and i will get her a cab... the her boyfriends mum rings her and asks her why shes not getting an ambulance... daughter says for some weird reason they wont send one. i can sort of forgive daughter for thinking they would. but then for her bf mum to ring and question why not... wtf....

OP posts:

ginnybag · 03/03/2015 18:27

Sorry, hit post too soon... The last sentence should have been, provided medical care is accessible another way without lengthy delay or complex journeys. Direct taxi or lift, yes. Multiple bus journeys... no.

Icimoi · 03/03/2015 18:47

I don't think that the criterion for whether you need an ambulance rests o whether the individual concerned sounds incoherent and upset. With an injury like this, for example, you may think you are reasonably OK but you may in reality have something like compartment syndrome which has to be treated as an emergency. Also, for what it's worth, you can have some people in major hysterics after a trivial injury, and vice versa.

When I broke my ankle there was no way I could have put any weight on it, and I really don't see how I could even have made it out to a car as hopping was incredibly painful - and that wasn't even a compound break, although it was a trimalleolar fracture. I was in a university hall of residence, and they called an ambulance. The paramedics certainly didn't seem to think it was in any way out of the ordinary to be called for that sort of injury.

CaTsMaMmA · 03/03/2015 18:54

i'd call an ambulance for an obviously broken ankle

if you think she hasn't broken it, then I'd go to nearest minor injuries for a more professional opinion.

clam · 03/03/2015 18:55

Needabumchange "YANBU a hurt ankle or indeed a broken legions not require an ambulance!"
If, by that, you mean "a broken leg," then you're wrong, as others have said. It entirely depends on the circumstances. Dh and I dithered for a while as to whether I might be able to hop to the car when I fell on the stairs and (as I found out later) broke my leg in three places, requiring extensive surgery.
The paramedics couldn't believe we'd even thought about it, as they administered gas and air and stretchered me to the ambulance high as a kite.

Ifyourawizardwhydouwearglasses · 03/03/2015 18:57

Is the bone sticking out?
If the bone's sticking out, I'd call the ambulance.

If not, I'd tell her to harden the fuck up and get a lift in.

SuperMumTum · 03/03/2015 18:58

When I broke my wrist my work called an ambulance for me. I didn't really question it at the time but it was probably unnecessary as I could have got a taxi. I think there us a tendency to think injury = ambulance for a lot of people without fully considering other options. And YABU for ranting at your daughter when she understandably just wants to get seen to ASAP.

CptJack · 03/03/2015 18:59

I think Yabu, I once had to call an ambulance for a broken ankle. I could have called a taxi, but there's no way I could have made it over the steep door step, down the garden path into the cab.

I was very apologetic to the crew when they arrived, but they couldn't have been nicer to me.

MrsWolowitz · 03/03/2015 19:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

KatieKaye · 03/03/2015 19:08

Ginny - your example of being able to talk coherently is NOT an indication that the person is not in shock. When I go into shock I can block out pain, talk very coherently - but my blood pressure is in my boots. As in very dangerously low.

Doctors have impressed on me that this is incredibly serious.

Unless you have medical knowledge and have fully assessed the situation do not assume that because somebody sounds okay then they are okay.

olgaga · 03/03/2015 19:28

Three or four years ago a colleague of my DH fell downstairs at home and broke his ankle. His wife took him to A&E.

He ended up with an infection in his heart which caused serious damage and had to have a pacemaker fitted last year.

Any fracture, if not properly dealt with and treated, can cause serious complications.

Original poster

ghostspirit · 03/03/2015 19:36

someone asked if they are teenagers yes 17 and 18. yes did rant at her. shes possibly broken something about 4 times now. everytime she hurts herself its i think i have broken. she does get me frustrated because i will tell her a very simple thing and she wants to debate about it. like about her ankle i told her to take some pain killers. she agued whats the point?

1111 refused her an amulance anyway... and from what i saw when i actually got home she defo did not need one. she hopped then sort of dragged her foot then put it down. then i watched her go to the cab and she had a limp.

ages ago now when she was actually in loads of pain screaming like mad and it was pretty scary. they wanted to send an ambulance waited a while with her screaming like mad. they then called to say no ambulances were avalible would we accept a cab. they said it would be ok based on all the noise she was making.

OP posts:

Mistigri · 03/03/2015 19:37

Maybe I've been away from the UK too long but ... A broken ankle doesn't justify an ambulance? Really? What are you supposed to do if you have no car? Hop on a bus? Hitchhike?

When I broke my ankle I got a helicopter to hospital (really - it was a compound fracture though) and my son was taken to hospital in an ambulance with broken tibia and fibula after a road accident. If anyone had suggested that I take him on a bus or by taxi I might have actually committed GBH. As it was, he was injured in France, where there is still something approximating a functioning emergency service, and we still think that broken limbs merit emergency treatment.

Original poster

ghostspirit · 03/03/2015 19:39

i can sort of see peoples points that there could be a complication or maybe people are not as ok as they may seem.... but then im sort of thinking if everyone thought that way. everyone would be calling an ambulance for everything. how many ambulances would be needed :/

OP posts:

RandomNPC · 03/03/2015 19:41

A broken ankle would justify an ambulance. The affected limb needs to be immobilised to stop jagged ends of bones causing problems with blood vessels. It might be that the questions asked by the 999 operator indicated a sprain/strain.

Original poster

ghostspirit · 03/03/2015 19:57

she just messaged me. was a sprain

OP posts:

PacificDogwood · 03/03/2015 19:59

Oh good, glad she is ok. Well, ok-ish - a bad sprain can take quite a while to heal.

rinabean · 03/03/2015 19:59

Ghostspirit you are not 999 for a reason. THEY can decide. They don't send ambulances just because you ask, as you found out when your daughter said they hadn't sent one! You need to calm down

Your daughter hurt herself so badly she thought she thought she would need an ambulance and you're ranting and raving at her about the ambulance she "wasted" that they didn't even send

KatieKaye · 03/03/2015 20:07

I wouldn't trust a word 111 said. When I found DM on the floor, they said someone would phone back in six hours because she hadn't had a stroke or broken anything. No, she just had hypothermia and the ambulance I called (when I realised how inept they were) couldn't even register a temperature...

insanityscratching · 03/03/2015 20:25

I badly broke my ankle at 36 weeks pregnant, I waited for my dsis to take me to the hospital in her little Fiat Panda. When we got there it took three people to get me out of the car whilst I sucked on gas and air like my life depended on it. I was told off for not calling an ambulance but it wouldn't have occurred to me.

Original poster

ghostspirit · 03/03/2015 21:06

guess thats true bean but the rant was a bit of a build up of other things. as well that i did not say on op. probably should have done. but it was all silly stuff really and a last straw type thing. anyway all sorted now.

OP posts:

FarFromAnyRoad · 03/03/2015 21:16

Is she generally a bit of a drama llama? What's with all the hysterical screaming?

OhFlippityBolax · 03/03/2015 21:22

A severe sprain can be worse than a break

Speaking from experience here where I snapped every tendon in my foot and ankle and yet it was categorised as a sprain...it smarts a bit doing that and takes longer to heal

insanityscratching · 03/03/2015 21:25

I think some people feel pain more than others and some people react more dramatically. I was at my friends when her dd 18 started screaming in the garden.
I thought she must be seriously injured and felt panicky not least because I can't cope with any gore. My friend went running out and much fuss ensued as she helped her in saying she had cut her foot. I said I'd go home because the last thing she needed was me there going green.
Friend's daughter thought it would be funny to show me whilst sobbing. When I looked there was barely a scratch, something my own dd wouldn't even have mentioned.

fiverabbits · 03/03/2015 21:28

You have to look at the circumstances. When my grown up DD fell over just around the corner from my house my DS ran home to get my DH and the car. In the meantime a couple stopped to see why my DD was lying on the pavement screaming. The lady was an A & E nurse and called an ambulance straight away. She could see straight away that my DD had broken her arm which didn't didn't need an ambulance BUT she was having an asthma attack and was going into shock. The hospital is only 10 minutes away but by the time it got there she had morphine and oxygen and then was rushed straight into a cubicle. My DH and I are disabled and wouldn't have been able to help her get out of the car or into the hospital by ourselves. My DS had to stay at home because he needed to eat his dinner because he is diabetic.

Meloria · 03/03/2015 21:30

You're absolutely awful OP. If you thought your nearest and dearest was abusing the NHS perhaps the time to address it is not while they're in serious pain.

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