How far are you from your nearest A&E and could you get your husband there quickly if you had to?

[verdantverdure]

And what would you do with the children?

One of my neighbours had to get her husband to hospital recently in the absence of an ambulance and it took a borrowed wheelchair and several neighbours.

Am I being unreasonable to think most of us don't have a plan for this?

Could most of us get our partners to hospital fast enough in the event of a stroke or heart attack?

What's your plan?

an ex boyfriends father died waiting for an ambulance. I (aged 16) and a passer by (he collapsed in a public place) performed cpr
for the 30 minutes it took the ambulance
to get to him (30 odd years ago).

i would do everything I could to get my DH to hospital myself if it came to it. It’s a 15 min drive to nearest A and E. Neighbours would help, children are teens so no worries about childcare

He's got me there twice in 14 minutes (in labour).
No , I couldn't get him there, he's 6'3", 16st and disabled, no chance of lifting him or getting him to the car.

@BeyondReleaseTheKraken

Aspirin is used to prevent stroke and after TIAs, but it's a bit tricky in an acute event as sometimes strokes are caused by bleeds, rather than clots so in this situation it would make it worse.

300mg aspirin (1 tablet) chewed is recommended for suspected heart attacks, although there are some individuals with complex illnesses it would not be great for.

This is really scary reading this. I stopped to help a 80 year old man with blood all over his head about three years ago (fallen through a greenhouse and had glass in his head. I had two very young kids in the car and he had a bedridden wife upstairs. I applied pressure to the wound, but the blood pulsed out when I removed the towel - it was pretty horrifying when the call handlers told me it would be a 2 hour wait.

They sent an immediate responder in the end after about 30 mins - but I begged them in tears to send someone - I guess I wouldn’t even get a responder for that now.

I’ve wondered about taxi services, I know they are being used a lot more for trips to A&E - I bet they will start to say no to calls to go to A&E - I have no idea, but I imagine it may affect their insurance?

About 25 minutes away. We have older family on the same street, so children would be taken care of. Or I could send him in one of their cars but they all drive at 35mph even in a crisis. We actually live beside the ambulance station but I don't think that guarantees a quick response the way things are at present.

It depends what for. The only tines I've had to call an ambulance for DH I couldn't fetch him out of bed, let alone down the stairs.

I don't live that far and I could act as a taxi for anyone, in theory.

In real life, I have a disability affecting my hands, not to mention that I would struggle to manhandle a large man into a small car anyway. So unless this person could walk and get into a taxi anyway, I'm no use.

Lost the rest of my post. DS had intense stomach pains, "luckily" we'd had a dry run a couple of days earlier when I spent over 30 mins on the phone to 999 then 111, thinking he had a burst appendix, only to be told it wasn't an emergency.
A&E is about 3 miles away but even in the middle of the night it took over 10 mins to get there. He actually had a perforated colon and needed an emergency colectomy, if we hadn't gone straight to A&E he could have died.

The only way I would manage to get DH to hospital is if he was able to get to the car himself unless I was fortunate that my neighbours were gone to help assist.

it is worrying though as there are so many problems with ambulances. A family member recently had a stroke, 999 thought it was a stroke, the paramedic who came on to the call thought it was a stroke but it still took them over 3 hours to get there

30 minutes.
But I’m lucky my brother and sister in law live next door and another brother in law not too far.

I could get them to help get him in the car and take the kids.

I’ve thought about this before.

Mile and a half away but we'd have to call an ambulance. Neither of us drive and we don't have any friends or family, plus the taxis here are notoriously unreliable.

5 minute drive

But he'd have to be able to walk as he's 14 stone and I'm 9

Be able to walk to the CAR

In your dreams. Just before Christmas my DM had a mini stroke (TIA). Ambulance called, they then called back and cancelled. No ambulance or medical person ever attended. The queue in the cold outside her nearest A&E is hour long. Nurse told me off, I suggested shekel - total silence.

Are we still advised to give a dose of aspirin if the FACE criteria are met and a stroke is likely?
I don't keep aspirin in the house.
I could drive to the hospital in about 7 minutes. A neighbour fell out of the door of a shop a few days ago and went into A&E and was x-rayed and out within 3 hours so I don't know what's going on up there, last summer the wait was 16 hrs.

Where I live, it has always been quicker to just drive there, if you can.
Every time I've had an ambulance called for me (and each time it was a life or death emergency) it has taken at least an hour, and usually closer to two hours.

Then, you have to hope that someone has woken the GP up, so they can open the A&E room at the hospital (cottage hospital run by GPs). Then, you have to hope that it isn't imminently dangerous, because then you'll need the ambulance plane. The Western Isles used to have its own, but now we share with Orkney and (I think) Shetland. It was called when I had an emergency in labour and it took three hours. The baby was dead after two.

Basically, if you have a life-threatening illness or injury here, you will either die or you won't. Speedy medical care will not be the thing that makes the difference.

10 minute walk to a major trauma centre, I work in the same hospital and it's the reason I line where I do.

A&E is ten minutes away. DH is not overweight so could get him into the car with help from a neighbour. DC would be left with a neighbour or worst case bundled into the car too. We could do it.

I wish that was the case everywhere. A family member recently waited over 3 hours for the ambulance after having a stroke

@trulyunruly01

Aspirin is for a heart attack as an emergency measure. For a stroke it could be problematic.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/stroke/

When my friend who also lived very close had a minor stroke, I suggested he get a taxi. 😳. He said he'd get an ambulance. Who actually took him to the stroke unit on the other side of the city.

My husband has actually been having chest pains this week and I am a bit concerned about his heart. He managed to get a doctors appointment next Thursday, so hopefully it won't get much worse before then (he's in his 70s).
I can get him to the hospital by car if my sons are around to lift him, it would only take 10 minutes.

5-10 minutes. I don't have a partner though.
I can get my cat to the emergency vet in under 10 minutes, does that count?

That's terrifying. Hope he was ok.

Hospital is a 20 min drive away (DH says 11 at 5am on a Sunday morning with a woman in labour). I could drive him and have friends or DM locally to leave the dc with. DC are 14 and 11, so pretty independent. DM only moved here recently. Even though she needs some low level looking herself, it is marvellous to have an emergency adult on hand.