What, in your opinion, deserves an ambulance call out?

[Drizzledrozzle]

Inspired by another thread, what level of pain / injury / personal circumstances deserves an ambulance call out?

In my own recent experience I'm aware of my gran who calls an ambulance most days because she's confused and gets some shortness of breath.
IMO she should not be calling an ambulance, but she's alone and frightened and clearly calls them as a safety mechanism. She also calls police, fire and the gas board most days, as well as my dad x30 a day and myself once or twice. She's shortly being moved into residential care which will be a great relief to her local emergency services. However if she didn't have family / resources to pay for the care what is the answer?

My partner had a virus and while walking across the kitchen he suddenly collapsed. He didn't lose consciousness but was unable to get up, and I had two small children I was looking after so couldn't give him much care or attention or time, so I called 999. I think the shock of him collapsing made me unable to think straight.
They triaged him by phone, told him to get himself to a sofa as soon as he could, and they'd drop by when they had a moment but they wouldn't consider him a priority.
He ended up being taken in that night when they arrived with suspected meningitis. Thankfully he didn't have it and recovered soon after

When pregnant with DC1 I had a single drop of blood appear and again I freaked out and called 999. They kindly told me I didn't need an ambulance and to keep an eye, stay comfortable and get to an EPU in the morning. All was luckily fine.
I very clearly shouldn't have called 999, but no ambulance came and I only wasted 5 mins of phone time.

I don't want a critique of all my experiences, I'm sure it would be searing! But given some posters seem to think you need to be actually in cardiac arrest before you can even consider calling 999, where is your line?

Here in the US our health insurance has a $5000 excess on ER visits and ambulance rides.

So 911 is an absolute last resort for us, life threatening situation only.

@Fanfan18

A pub I was in recently called and ambulance when an elderly ALMOST fellover. I went over - she was shaken and a bit out of breathe but I spoke with her and asked questions and she was fine. Ambulance came and went within about 20 minutes. Absolute waste of time and money!

Probably not the situation here, but I work in a hotel and we have called ambulances for people when they really didn't need them. One was a man drunk and fell coming back into the car park. He cut his arm, and yes there was a fair amount of blood, but we administered first aid and offered to call a taxi to take him to the local minor injuries unit. Both him and his wife demanded an ambulance, so we had no choice but to call one really. Was back in an hour with a bandage - not even a stitch warranted. Total waste of NHS resources but our hands were tied really, if someone asks you to call one when you're in a position like that you have to really.

The problem with that drspouse is that there might actually be a genuine emergency, a fire etc, and precious time would be wasted and op etc may not always be able to answer.

I really wouldn't advise this.

I've called an ambulance twice in my life. The first, when I saw someone lying in the street one morning.

The second was when my elderly neighbour came round wanting a lift to the hospital from DP. I wasn't sure where he was, and there was nobody else nearby. The neighbour was going to call a cab, but since he was repeatedly throwing up blood and having bouts of diarrhoea I wasn't sure the local cab firm would be too thrilled (they use their cars, so not wipe-downable).

I did feel guilty ringing 999 and apologised to both the operator, and the paramedics when they arrived, but they all assured me I was fine to have called.

I would call one if I was in so much pain I was unable to get to the hospital under my own steam, or if I had any symptoms that would suggest heart attack, stroke, anaphylactic shock, severe respiratory difficulties, meningitis or sepsis. Same for someone in my care (and also if they were unconscious and I wasn't able to rouse them).

Having said that, I would never advise someone else NOT to call one, no matter what, because I couldn't live with myself if anything happened as a result.

Oh and severe injury / accident, and anything that could indicate or have caused a neck or spinal injury.

I've rung a few ambulances in my time, most recently was when we thought my dad was having a stroke (it was actually encephalitis). Another time was when my sister was in a constant seizure like state (even then I rang the gp first), and another when a patient I was visiting had a blood sugar of 1. Something, very scary. The only time I didn't ring an ambulance was when my husband fell through the garage roof. He could just about walk so I drove him to hospital. The hospital said we should have rung an ambulance as we didn't know if he'd done any damage to his spine. To be honest I think we both just panicked a bit and thought as he could walk we should just get there.

There was a man lying in the pavement who only grunted in response about a year ago. It was December, -8, and I rang an ambulance. When they arrived they knew him so I guess he may have been a regular drunk user or something? But I didn't know he was drunk.

Then there was the time that my aftercare worker rang the doctor to do a home visit but after hearing my symptoms (severe eczema) the doctor told her to call an ambulance as I may have sepsis - turns out I didn't luckily.

Were those a waste of resources?

I was driving home alone when I was about 20 and it was pitch black. There was a man covered in blood stood in the middle od the road, how I didn't hit him was a miracle. I didn't know what to do I wanted to go back and help him but I was also thinking well what if this is a ruse to rape and murder me- I read way too many crime books but you've gotta be wary. So I called an ambulance from round the corner instead

I dread to think how many times I've called an ambulance!!!!
Severally disabled DS9 has Epilepsy....School called on when eldest DS broke his arm at primary school.
111 called me an ambulance when I couldn't stand...(that was embarrassing)....
We moved to be closer to the hospital. Now less than 3 miles away !!!

When my DD fell down the stairs in April I got told off by both her Social Worker and the staff at A+E for not calling an ambulance, as she fell down concrete stairs and the injuries could have been severe. But I justified it by my mum was there and was happy to drive us. DD was fine just concussion and a nasty bruise.

So I'd say head injury, if you can't move or be helped up, breathing difficulties etc.

My oh has MS he said he felt his heart racing and felt funny I took him to a&e in the car the doctors asked why I didn't call an ambulance and if it happened again I should he was diagnosed with AF it happened again a few weeks later I called an ambulance they sent out a firs6 responder who treated him and requested an ambulance we were told there was over a 2hr wait for an ambulance the first responder said off the record I would probably be better taking him to a&e in the car.

I panicked the first time my baby showed his food allergy- his face was visibly swelling and his eyes puffing up. I decided that the fastest way to get medical attention was to shove him in the carseat and charge to the GPs 2-3 minutes away. I sprinted in with a half dressed, screaming, red faced baby with eyes that could barely open. The reaction had peaked at that point. The nurse and GP observed him for a few minutes and he had a prescription for antihistamines. An ambulance would probably have been a fair call, but I felt I was getting the quickest attention that way.

I've called 999 for mountain rescue/ ambulance for what turned out to be a sprained knee. My friend slipped and lay screaming and we didn't know the extent of the injury (sprain/ break?) and couldn't transport him over an hour's walk by ourselves. He was stretchered off the mountain and taken to hospital. Had it have been a sports field injury in an accessible location, a car may have sufficed.

Unconscious
No pulse
Not breathing
Extreme pain (screaming the house down)
Extreme blood loss

Anything else is 111 for me.

Oh also:

Suspected heart attack
Stroke

There was a man lying in the pavement who only grunted in response about a year ago. It was December, -8, and I rang an ambulance. When they arrived they knew him so I guess he may have been a regular drunk user or something?

Been there, done that. We were driving through town late one winter's night and I spotted a man lying on the pavement. Went to check on him and found that he was breathing but unresponsive, no visible injuries that i could find and he was smelling of alcohol. I called an ambulance, used my jacket to try and keep him warm till they arrived. I would do so again. The lack of visible signs of injury does not rule out injury or medical emergency and even if he was just a drunk asleep on the pavement he was still a human being. Your guy may well have been a regular drunk but that didn't mean he deserves to freeze to death on the pavement. You did the right thing.

I'm a Care Worker and call Paramedics out at least once a month! Usually I find someone on the floor, they can't tell me how long they've been there and after a few hours on the floor everything hurts regardless of a specific injury or not. If they can't stand with minimal assistance we have to call 999. Yes 9 times out of 10 there's no serious injury but at least half the time it's decided to admit them to hospital to rule out infection/underlying conditions.

On the flip side I once had a gentleman who got himself up, said he was fine and refused Dr or any help. A week later his family took him out and ended up in A+E after he couldn't stand up....turns out he had fractured his hip in the fall and made it worse by walking on it for a week. I'm afraid I will always be overcautious because the consequences can be so bad. That said we never expect a speedy response and I have often spent hours waiting for the ambulance to arrive, think my record was was 8 hours trying to keep somebody still and comfy on the floor on a Friday night.

I have rung for an ambulance once and it was when I arrived home to find my elderly neighbour on the ground bleeding from his head. Unfortunately he was already dead and if I had looked at him a bit more closely I would have seen that but I panicked and was dialling 999 from my phone before I got out the car as soon as I saw him. I was already on the phone to the call handler when I realised he was dead so she said she would send a fast response car instead and notify the police. Turned out he had taken his own life by jumping out the 3rd floor window

When you work for 111, you get so many calls that should really be for 999. I still really don’t understand why! Examples such as, you can hear the patient rolling around in pain, or their relative trying to stop the patient from committing suicide. I’m just thinking why the hell are you calling me, call 999 as you are delaying the patients care. We can’t pick up a patients location as we mannually have to put it in. And you get people calling up in the middle of a forest having a severe allergic reaction and we can’t find where they are! Sometimes you triage people and give them the outcome and they’re not happy. Oh I’m just going to ring 999 then. Well why didn’t you do that it the first place? We can’t send out ambulances because a patient wants one. We have to do an assessment and if that triggers an ambulance response then we can send it. Most of the time people can just go to a&e, but they don’t want to sit and wait. Rule is if you want paramedics or the ambulance then call 999.

Unconsciousness caused by Hyper it Hypoglycaemia

I'm a nurse, and my friend phoned me once while I was at work to say he thought he'd had a stroke. As he lived very close to the hospital I told him to call a taxi. His response was; "I'll call an ambulance, that's what they are for!" They took him straight to the stroke unit. Fortunately it wasn't series, but I still haven't lived it down.

This is pretty comprehensive
www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care/when-to-call-999/

I was taken to hospital by ambulance when I was 17 and had severely dislocated my knee whilst up a hill of DoE expedition.
If I had been in town then potentially an ambulance wasn't needed - I could have been taken by car. But we were a)only teenagers with no car or ability to drive and b)In the arse-end of nowhere with no adults present.

As it turned out I had compromised blood flow and needed a shed load of gas and air to have it put back in - so ambulance would have been needed anyway. But my point it, sometimes context matters - it isn't black and white.

@QuestionableMouse

Seriously? Try reading the op, then reading my post. This isn't about justifying an ambulance, it's about justifying a 999 call.

Your dad sounds like an idiot. If he had chest pains, he should have called 999, if he wasn't sure, he could have called either 111 or his gp, both of which would have sent an ambulance. No doubt he just buried his head in the sand and hoped it would just go away.

IME - they are really fast if they need to be, ie life threatening.

My DS was very young and called an ambulance when I fell downstairs and knocked myself out and badly broke my arm. I think I was unconscious for a while and there was blood everywhere. DS says they were very, very quick from what he remembers and they instructed him through the letterbox how to open the back door because I was blocking the front door. They were really amazing, I still feel ill when I remember how white and shaking my DS was when I came to and there was blood (from my head) all over the wall. Still phobic about stairs! [vomit]

Hmm guess that didn't give me a vom emoticon.