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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2kV0O7K:
cornerof5thandvermouth:
cunningcelt:
thebibliosphere:
stimmymage:
pervocracy:
fandommember:
benaddictedcumberbabe:
cameronfryesgirlfriend:
cause of death: too shy to call ambulance
Didn’t want to inconvenience anyone
Someone else might have needed it more
This happens. :(
Bear in mind that ambulance companies aren’t diverting EMTs away from a heart attack or traumatic amputation to answer your call. They’re much more likely to be diverting EMTs from:
Sitting in an ambulance station or a random parking lot playing Words With Friends and/or developing elaborate company-wide romantic intrigues
Sitting in a hospital EMS room doing giant stacks of paperwork no one will ever read while trying to make dinner entirely out of saltines and condiments
Routine transports of people who have to travel by stretcher, who maybe are not happy to be late, but are hardly going to die from it
Transports which are technically emergencies, but are stuff like vomiting or a sprained ankle where the urgency factor is more like “yeah, you should get that seen” than like “STAT CODE RED CODE BLUE CODE POLKA DOT STAT STAT STAT.”
So if you think you might need an ambulance, call one. You are not going to single-handedly take down the EMS system by daring to use it.
I’m reblogging it but I would be that person wondering “Do I need this enough” until I died.
I have legitimately done this. Please, take care of yourselves.
This is 100% true.
As a First Aid trainer, I’m constantly hearing stories of people who didn’t want to call an ambulance because they didn’t want to distract from “real emergencies.”
But here’s the thing: most people don’t know what an emergency is, so by the time something is bad enough that they think they need an ambulance, it’s too late. They needed an ambulance hours ago. Now they need a coroner.
What we teach is ‘if in doubt, call them out.’
Emergency services will get all the info about your situation they need, and will triage you amongst the rest of their patients. This means if you have trouble breathing and call an ambulance, you’ll be at the top of the list; if you broke your toe, you’ll probably be somewhere down the bottom. But if you or a loved one is in pain, and it’s more than you can handle on your own, call an ambulance.
If in doubt, call them out.
ok but with what money tho
yeah, that’s really the thing here. I’ve held off on going to the ER for terrible pain before, and I’ve been right. one time I passed out from pain, and so finally dragged myself in thinking I was having organ failure or something (I’d never actually fainted before, except from lack of oxygen, so I was really alarmed), and was told I wasn’t eligible for any assistance at all, and that it was just a torn muscle and there was nothing they could do, and then was stuck with a $700 bill that might as well have been a million dollars to me at the time, for them having looked at me and given me an ibuprofen, when I earned less than $10k a year. (I couldn’t get Medicaid, they said, because I shared an address with a wealthier roommate, who’d driven me there and didn’t think to lie when put on the spot and asked. This is not actually policy, but the hospital said it was, at the time, and stood firm on it, refusing to discount my bill in any way. I just didn’t pay it, ruining my credit, but that shit goes away eventually.)
Medically, absolutely, yes, you should seek assistance, via ambulance if necessary, and they won’t be cruel to you, it’s not a waste of time to be safe.
But, given the state of healthcare in the US, and especially once the ACA is dismantled and what access we have is gone, it’s a sad reality that sometimes you have to just take an Advil and get your affairs in order.
Or, just get really good at not caring about collectors calling for bills. You gotta do you.
(Oh, I’d sort of blocked that out, but that probably also explains why my phone anxiety is so bad. Unknown number = collections. You know how mean they get on the phone? I’d actually forgotten that! I panic when my phone rings and had forgotten why. I guess it’s been a while.)
cornerof5thandvermouth:
cunningcelt:
thebibliosphere:
stimmymage:
pervocracy:
fandommember:
benaddictedcumberbabe:
cameronfryesgirlfriend:
cause of death: too shy to call ambulance
Didn’t want to inconvenience anyone
Someone else might have needed it more
This happens. :(
Bear in mind that ambulance companies aren’t diverting EMTs away from a heart attack or traumatic amputation to answer your call. They’re much more likely to be diverting EMTs from:
Sitting in an ambulance station or a random parking lot playing Words With Friends and/or developing elaborate company-wide romantic intrigues
Sitting in a hospital EMS room doing giant stacks of paperwork no one will ever read while trying to make dinner entirely out of saltines and condiments
Routine transports of people who have to travel by stretcher, who maybe are not happy to be late, but are hardly going to die from it
Transports which are technically emergencies, but are stuff like vomiting or a sprained ankle where the urgency factor is more like “yeah, you should get that seen” than like “STAT CODE RED CODE BLUE CODE POLKA DOT STAT STAT STAT.”
So if you think you might need an ambulance, call one. You are not going to single-handedly take down the EMS system by daring to use it.
I’m reblogging it but I would be that person wondering “Do I need this enough” until I died.
I have legitimately done this. Please, take care of yourselves.
This is 100% true.
As a First Aid trainer, I’m constantly hearing stories of people who didn’t want to call an ambulance because they didn’t want to distract from “real emergencies.”
But here’s the thing: most people don’t know what an emergency is, so by the time something is bad enough that they think they need an ambulance, it’s too late. They needed an ambulance hours ago. Now they need a coroner.
What we teach is ‘if in doubt, call them out.’
Emergency services will get all the info about your situation they need, and will triage you amongst the rest of their patients. This means if you have trouble breathing and call an ambulance, you’ll be at the top of the list; if you broke your toe, you’ll probably be somewhere down the bottom. But if you or a loved one is in pain, and it’s more than you can handle on your own, call an ambulance.
If in doubt, call them out.
ok but with what money tho
yeah, that’s really the thing here. I’ve held off on going to the ER for terrible pain before, and I’ve been right. one time I passed out from pain, and so finally dragged myself in thinking I was having organ failure or something (I’d never actually fainted before, except from lack of oxygen, so I was really alarmed), and was told I wasn’t eligible for any assistance at all, and that it was just a torn muscle and there was nothing they could do, and then was stuck with a $700 bill that might as well have been a million dollars to me at the time, for them having looked at me and given me an ibuprofen, when I earned less than $10k a year. (I couldn’t get Medicaid, they said, because I shared an address with a wealthier roommate, who’d driven me there and didn’t think to lie when put on the spot and asked. This is not actually policy, but the hospital said it was, at the time, and stood firm on it, refusing to discount my bill in any way. I just didn’t pay it, ruining my credit, but that shit goes away eventually.)
Medically, absolutely, yes, you should seek assistance, via ambulance if necessary, and they won’t be cruel to you, it’s not a waste of time to be safe.
But, given the state of healthcare in the US, and especially once the ACA is dismantled and what access we have is gone, it’s a sad reality that sometimes you have to just take an Advil and get your affairs in order.
Or, just get really good at not caring about collectors calling for bills. You gotta do you.
(Oh, I’d sort of blocked that out, but that probably also explains why my phone anxiety is so bad. Unknown number = collections. You know how mean they get on the phone? I’d actually forgotten that! I panic when my phone rings and had forgotten why. I guess it’s been a while.)
