Intentionally vague use of “emergency situation” to encourage people to share. If you handle emergency situations as a profession, what’s a particularly interesting one.
My 9 year old woke me up before 6 on a weekend saying “Dad, dad, there’s an emergency!”
I got up to find the bathroom covered in sand and water and a toilet full of sand and shattered glass after a jar had been dropped in it.
Honestly, I had no idea what was going on, and yet complete certainly that someone was doing things they were not supposed to be doing and that the fact that I had to be awake right now means that this was going to be a bad day.
Don’t worry though, there’s a happy ending. We sold the child to a gang of poachers and regained all the free time and peace of mind we’ve been missing out on. And with the profits I plan to buy a Miata.
I was camping at an event. I had recently finished recharging a large lipo battery (3S 9000mah). The battery went from normal to nuclear in a second or 2.
Thankfully I had it clear of flammables and in a lipo bag. Even so, it started 3 grass fires in the time it took to get it out of the marquee and wet enough to extinguish it. The event volunteers were there within 40 seconds, with fire extinguishers. Thankfully we already had it under control by then.
Lesson learnt, always use a fire resistant container to charge in e.g. an ammo can or a cooking pot. Also assume it can turn into a fireball with absolutely no warning, and plan accordingly.
Yes! Lipos are so fucking dangerous. Had 3 transform into fireballs on me, in different occasions. Now they stay in ammo boxes.
I just had the most traumatic one of my life this last few weeks.
Watched my bipolar brother refuse to admit he was manic for months as it got worse and worse. Dozens of friends and family trying to help, but him burning every bridge on the way down.
Somehow got his ass arrested for some violent crime, that nobody will even explain to me, and damn near killed in the process. I got to stand by helplessly as the police and the hospital give me no access, and allow him to continue to self sabatoge even his mental health legal defense, and put himself in more risk in county jail instead of the psych ward.
Promising career, ALMOST had student loan forgiveness from medical school, woulda had it in October, in big big trouble now!
It has sucked real bad so far, and we haven’t even hit trial yet.
Probably when my roommate tried to kill himself a few months ago.
My sister tried to hold his wound shut and led him outside.
I held the door shut to keep him from getting back to the knife, called the ambulance, and cleaned up all the blood the next day.Still feels kinda surreal.
I haven’t experienced anything too traumatic but I have one thing that comes to mind.
A few years ago I found an old lady laying on the ground outside the door to an apartment. It was winter and ice in the ground. I rushed up to her and saw that she was bleeding from her head.
I kneeled down, put her head on my lap, put my jacket over her and applied pressure to her wound. My college called for an ambulance that came 5-10 minutes later and took care of her.
I had a similar experience a few years back. Had a party at my place and dropped all the inebriated people off at their respective places. Due to logistics had to take the bicycle back. Took a shortcut that I usually don’t take, and found a man face down in a puddle, bleeding from the head. Got him on his feet and managed to get him into his bed and dress the wound. He had drunk himself sensless after his team lost at hockey. His wife was pissed.
Currently helping someone go through the legal process post-car-crash. Just providing some advice for how to navigate it.
About 5 years ago or so, was standing waiting for the bus, minding my own business. Next to me was a man in his 40’s, and his ~10 year old kid. Suddenly I saw from the corner of my eye that the man just collapsed, like you see in cartoons, straight down on the ground. Kid froze up and just stared at him, and I quickly realized that “Oh fuck, I am the adult in the situation.”
Went over to the man, who was conscious, but confused and angry. Luckily I recognized the signs of hypoglycemia, and asked the kid if his dad has diabetes. Kid didn’t answer, just stared at him. Snapped my fingers in his face, and he came out of it, and answered “Yes, type 1”. Told the kid to run to the nearby store and get a juice box or two, don’t bother paying or explaining, we’ll deal with it later. I stayed with the dad, tried asking some questions while ringing the emergency number, and he let me check his head. Luckily he didn’t hit it, there was no blood at least.
Got the ambulance sorted, and kid ran back with juice boxes, with the store clerk running and screaming in tow. I yelled at the clerk that it’s an emergency, man with diabetes collapsed. Clerk didn’t care or listen, just screamed at the kid that he stole the juice boxes and tried to grab him. I got up and stepped between them, and raised my voice over hers (fortunately I have a very loud voice if I want to) and she shut up for a few seconds before starting her inane tirade about stealing and how she’s gonna phone the cops. I lost my temper and told her to shut the fuck up and either help or fuck off, who the fuck cares about 50 cents worth of juice, man’s life was on the line.
After drinking two boxes of juice, the man perked up and was coherent again, and stated that he has type 1 diabetes and forgot to eat. I told him it’s fine, ambulance is on the way, do you need more sugar? He said he’s fine, and tried to get up but I gently stopped him. During all of this, the clerk was still going on about stealing, and I got pissed, told her I know stores have a budget for this sort of thing, what the fuck is your problem, this man had an emergency, the kid did what I told him and it was the right thing to do. At this point, I remembered the kid.
The kid was standing there, tears in his eyes, staring at his feet. I pat him on the back, told him to not listen to the insane lady, you did good lad, saved your dad’s life. Ambulance came at that point, and the man started fussing how he doesn’t need an ambulance, he’s fine. Told him that it’s a good idea to get checked even if you feel fine, see if there’s any underlying issues, check your head in case you hit it etc… Got the paramedics up to speed, they started a glucose and hydration drip.
During the whole ordeal, the clerk never stopped yammering and whining, so one of the paramedics told her to knock it off and jot it up as cost of business, stores have a budget for this exact sort of thing, and it was less than a euro worth of juice that saved a man’s life. They thanked me for the quick help, told them it’s fine, I have friends with diabetes, not my first rodeo, and I have a first aid certificate, got lucky I was there. Turned to the kid, who was sitting in the ambulance with his dad, still crying silently, in complete shock. I fist bumped him, told it was gonna be okay, you did good. Both the kid and dad thanked me, I told them no need, I just did what anyone else would have. Ambulance left.
Store clerk was still fuming, and tried to start her shit again with me. I took out my wallet, had 2 euro coin there and I threw it on the ground. Told her “there you go, you stupid piece of shit. You have your money, what the fuck are you still doing here” and put on my headphones, ignoring her. She left shortly after, glaring at me. I gave her the finger. She didn’t even pick up the 2 euro coin.
My bus came, and I was almost an hour late for work at that point. Boss nagged me when I got there, but calmed down when I explained. Was pissed about the clerk all day.
All of this at 06:30 in the morning. I’m not a morning person. It sucked. At least I could help someone in need.
Moral of the story (if you really want one):
Don’t be a fucking dickhead.
Also, if you have the chance, do first aid training. I’ve had several situations during my life where things could’ve ended worse if I didn’t know how to react. One situation unfortunately where it didn’t matter, old boy had a seizure (I think aneurysm or stroke) and was dead before the paramedics got there, me and another dude had been doing CPR for 20 minutes on a dead man, but at least we did our best.
The last few times I’ve been in an emergency situation, I’ve been the emergency. I’ve talked about most of them fairly extensively on Lemmy, but the last time I was close to being in one where I wasn’t the focus is as follows:
I have a kid, then I think four, maybe early five. At the time this happened I was either working from my home office or studying, something that required most of my attention and, preferably, no distractions. The kid was with their mother, so I knew they were being watched. I heard the kid call out once or twice, perhaps a bit plaintively on reflection, but didn’t respond because I was confident they were being supervised.
The third time, I thought it odd that their supervisor hadn’t responded and stepped out to say “what do you need?” They said “I need help.” They always like to ask for help even when they don’t need it, they just want us to do the work, and I was up a flight of stairs with - at the time - mobility issues, so I didn’t respond with urgency. I did come down to help, but slowly and complaining in my brain the whole time.
The kid has always liked to climb but also had concerns about getting down once they got up. It turns out that, in this case, the mother had stepped away to use the restroom and the kid had climbed onto a table in the kitchen. They then pulled a random stepladder to the table and tried to climb down it backwards, but managed to get their neck stuck under the handle and didn’t have the upper body strength to get themself out of the situation.
They’re fine now, but I hate that memory.
Shed on fire, last week.
A fire had taken hold in a large shed.
I ran 2 hoses and sprayed the roof down, and put out a cupboard with paints and cans.
Brought it under control and extinguished.
I’m a volunteer firefighter.
Wow, an actual fire! Those are pretty rare.
A woman had a seizure on the sidewalk. I kept her in the recovery position (she was already on her side) and managed to slip a bag under her head because she kept banging it on the ground. Called 911. Figured everything was as good as it could be given situation, she wasn’t going to hurt herself any further and help was coming.
Then a cop walked up and tried to pull her onto her back while I was trying to keep her on her side. I yelled to back off, he yelled back, argued with me about whether I witnessed a seizure, I refused to let him touch her, EMTs arrived shortly after.
Fuck cops.
This past weekend.
A wildfire started up a few miles from my parents house in the western US. Winds were fairly high and it was well above 95F, so in a day and a half it went from a sprig of smoke to 10,000 acres fuelling its own weather.
I have spent the entire weekend helping them prep their property under some extreme stress. We ripped out every bit of brush and weed from the house perimeter, cut down 6 trees that were too close, ran a tractor with a disk to start building ground fire lines around the base of their hill, and ran as many water sprinklers on the lawn and surrounding terrain and trees as we could to improve their ability to resist ignition. And on top of that have gotten them packed and their livestock and farm equipment all moved to pastures well out of the treeline.
All of this while the sun was completely obscured by smoke, to the point where I had the lights on the tractor. Hell, we could HEAR the fire from their house. It was like a jet engine was running just over the west ridge. You could see tree crowns torching 150+ feet in the air.I’ve probably worked like 45+ hours in the last 4 days. I’m so tired dude.
Luckily, whether by sheer happenstance or force of a god unknowing, the wind has held in the right direction and the fire front facing their house has been very mild since Saturday night, and wildfire crews have had a chance to build dozer containment lines there. We’re still on a hair trigger but we are cautiously optimistic they’re going to make it through without any of their land burning.
Fuck global warming dude
What a terrifying experience! I’m glad you’re safe for now. Praying your family and farm stay whole.
Mask up! Breathing smoke is bad for your lungs. Good luck.
I pulled into an intersection, with the light, when a car that was screened from me by a row of stopped cars ran the light and t-boned me at around 50 mph. The rolled two full times. It only quit rolling then because it bounced off the side of a van that was sitting on the other side of the intersection. It settled upright. I remember watching the world rotate in front of me and I remember my head bouncing off what would have been pavement if not for the curtain airbag blocking the shattered side window.
The outside of the car was completely shredded, but the passenger compartment was intact. Between that, and a full set of airbags, both I and my passenger came through it unhurt. Not even so much as a headache. The car was a 2016 Subaru Outback. I replaced it with a 2018 Subaru Outback. A couple years later my passenger replaced her car with a 2020 Subaru Outback. I don’t expect either of us will buy anything but Subaru for the rest of our lives.
The funny part of the incident was the immediate aftermath. We live in a very friendly large town where a lot of people walk. The car had barely stopped when we were surrounded by a crowd of people offering help. I had a nurse on my side and my passenger had a doctor on hers. They talked us through a basic evaluation. Less than two minutes after the impact, paramedics arrived in an ambulance and took over. (I wouldn’t have known the timing, except that the nurse had checked and mentioned it.) After more thorough evaluations we were released.
The guy who hit us did have some injuries, but none of them turned out to be too serious. He had a lot of bruises, a few cuts from broken glass, and a stiff neck. He was horrified at what he had done and took full responsibility when the police got our statements. Apparently he got distracted trying to find his turned and missed the light changing.
No one else was hurt. The light had been changing when it happened and everyone had, amazingly, stayed where they were. The van we bounced off of had some minor damage on the side we hit, but it was still perfectly drivable.
It was the worst situation I’ve ever seen that resolved so well.
Not really a ‘real emergency’, but some time ago electricity in all my zone (a radius of 50-60km) went down for several hours, so even cell towers, ISP routing centers, ecc, were out of power. Not a real emergency, but I had 2 small meshtastic devices, and it was awesome to be able to discuss with people in other nearby cities and communicate ‘offline’!
That reminds me of the cruise ship builder on the Ems that managed to switch off Europe’s entire power grid in seconds.
The one in 2006? Not the cruise ship builder’s fault, but the system operators of the grids. They failed to communicate changes in the plan to each other, and then fucked up when things started to go wrong.
The cruise ship builders told the grid about the change in time too late, though, not really giving them enough time to calculate everything.
True, but they should have refused the schedule change then.
I was aimlessly swimming underwater in the deep end of a backyard pool when I saw an infant on the bottom, next to one of the side walls. I grabbed it, rushed it to the surface, and sat it on the edge. Her parents quickly came running. The kid was fine. It seems she instinctively held her breath once submerged and wasn’t under very long. The parents weren’t watching (they were in lawn chairs 10-20 feet away) and nobody really knows how long she was under. I’m still struck by the parents’ neglect. Also that the kid had no buoyancy and sank like a stone.
First off, good on you from the rescue!
As a parent, I get both sides. It’s absolutely horrifying, but so easy to lose focus. You can start chatting, and not realise you’re not tracking the child. You can also both assume the other has eyes on them.
It’s better to assume problems like this as systematic, rather than personal failures. If a small child has access to the water, they should be explicitly monitored. If you can’t (as a group) do that, then they shouldn’t have easy access to the water. You can also train children in water safety from a young age. Babies can be taught self rescue from around when they can crawl.
It’s so easy to lose focus. It requires constant concentration, at a time when your life has been turned upside down, and you are often suffering from sleep deprivation. A (apparently) calm ‘normal’ situation and your brain can relax back and switch off from parenting mode.
It’s horrifying when you learn about the number of pool drowning deaths a year. It’s in the thousands in the US alone.
Basically this exact thing happened to me as a child. I was fine but it is one of my earliest memories. Good job!
The only real “emergency” I can think of is when I saw someone get hit by car while trying to run across a three-lane road. Went over the hood. probably a 30MPH hit
The driver sped off. I pulled into the middle (turning) lane, put my hazard lights on, and tried to help the person. They were unconscious at first and then extremely dazed. Some other bystanders tried to get them to “walk it off” but I demanded they stay still and not move their head or neck until paramedics arrived.
Fortunately a nurse saw it from their apartment balcony and rushed out to help. They obviously agreed the person shouldn’t move.
Kind of wild looking back that so many people wanted this person who just got laid out by a car to pretend like they were completely okay. So fucking dangerous in that situation.
Yeah that’s horrible advice, definitely stay put. Also, don’t run across 3 lane roads lol. Wild the person hit and ran.
Yeah the whole thing was crazy. The driver apparently stopped a little ways down the road and called the police. They did come back but not initially.
