The neighbor who has been teaching me to turn wood had a fall yesterday. He's in his '80s and has Parkinson's so this wasn't a big surprise. He called us and I went over. The problem was that his legs were tangled up and I couldn't get him up by myself. The other guy who he calls to help was away from home, so we called 9-1-1.
We called 9-1-1 four times. The first three got a recording that "all operators are busy" and to stay on the line (we got disconnected each time). Finally we got through and the Paramedics took him to the hospital.
This got me thinking about what happens if the Electric Boogaloo comes - you'll be on your own. You should think about what your plan for emergency first aid will be. Probably there are some classes that are available, maybe at the local community college. I need to think about what those might be.
But the bottom line is that if the Electric Boogaloo comes, my neighbor is probably a gonner. He won't be the only one.
17 comments:
That is an eye opener! Yes, high thee to get some training at any venue you can.
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Borepatch, I have assumed - rightly or wrongly - this was the case for a while. In any small time natural disaster (and by small time, I mean nothing like an Electric Bugaloo) emergency services grind to a halt due to overload.
"If this was an actual emergency, you would be instructed where to tune for further information". The reality is, we will tune to nowhere except what we have built around us.
I called 911 a couple days ago to get my wife up after she'd fallen in the tub. It rang about a half-dozen times before they answered. I realize that they might have been on life and death calls, but what if mine had been and they didn't answer?
911 call centers are supposed to roll over to a call center in a nearby jurisdiction if not answered in a set number of rings.
As far as first aid training, that is why I offered to do the quickie little session at the last blog shoot. I have always thought it was a good idea to pool resources like training and knowledge before SHTF
My experience with 911 call centers? Some good, immediate connection and help, some not so good, waiting for 3 hours for police/medical to respond to a traffic accident with several several calls and watching police and EMS just pass us by, and this was at a busy intersection in the center of town.
But...
Here's the thing about most 911 call centers, sadly.
They hire 'high-diversity' individuals at a greater proportion than non-diversity. And many of these high-diversity folk use the 911 system as a way of keeping their less reputable relatives informed of police activity and, because of on-line records, of informant activity. And they can't be fired.
That. That is what is wrong with the 911 system. No way to get rid of bad employees while good employees get burnt out covering for the bad.
Not all call centers are like this, but if you are in a high-pop area, then this is a definite problem.
Make sure you have the correct numbers for local police and fire dispatch.
This is completely expected by anyone who has thought things through.,
If you aren't organized, skilled, with hard friends and decently equipped , good odds you won't make it through it.
If you are, your odds are better.
LifeAlert ("Help! I've fallen and I can't get up...") was fun to mock in the 1980s.
Not so much any more.
Beyond a certain age, you should have a cell phone on your person at all times, with contacts and emergency services on speed dial.
And yes, once things go all frisky, YOYO: You're On Your Own.
Emergency response aside… assume they did their job and were there within minutes: what then?
Your entire medical complex just went along with The Chinkypox Panic. Hook, line, and sinker. They turned a minor flu - that only kills the people with one foot in the grave - into an extinction level event. They invented a fake vaccine that kills 25 year old super athletes.
How do y’all feel about Dr. Filthie and his snake oil tonic now? My tonic cures Chinkypox, rickets, ED, and cancer! Balances the humours an tumours, and restores regularity! $49.99 a bottle!😂👍
You can learn wood turning from a good book, BP. Get a screw head chuck and you’re off to the races.
We've always been on our own.
Sounds like you are on your own now not to mention it being worse in any minor crisis well short of the EB. Not to hard to imagine a power outage and the .gov is probably an early adopter for electric vehicles.
Guess I need to upgrade first aid kit and training.
Is it too much to ask that the Captcha images not be so blurry that you can't tell a car from a tree.
Mr. Filthie makes the Big Point: I've got an extentive trauma kit I keep at home and have 6 steps away when teaching gun classes (and a smaller version always in each vehicle) and the training in how to use it; I carry a turkeynet, combat gauze, chest seals, etc. in my Shoot-Me-First vest pockets, along with a Boo-Boo kit (multiples, actually, because bandaids, Betadine swabs, Neosporin, 3X3s and self adhering tape will get used a LOT more than trauma stuff. I hope...)
Anyway, what I do not carry with me are surgical skills, cardiac monitors, blood analysis tools, defibrillators, oxygen tanks, X-ray equipment, MRIs, etc, etc. (but if I go back to teaching more than a couple times a year I will buy an AED).
I'm depending on EMTs for some of that on-scene equipment and the local hospitals for the rest of it, and both for sell trained staff who know how to use it (and hope there's an Aesop-equivalent or two somewhere in the neighborhood).
When we have the Electric Boogaloo, and we will have at least a small one at some point, the Hotel Artemis movie aside, that stuff won't be there, and even if it is, there may not be either the 120 volts AC or the trained personnel to make it work, so it'll be "Jermiah Johnson's World" with the attendant death rates.
@U4BJr.,
D'ya also have a laminated copy of a map to the two nearest trauma centers and emergency departments (they are not the same thing), and all the direct non-911 numbers for police/sheriff, fire, EMS, and ambulance services (to include helicopter paramedic response) inside that kit, right on top?
Does the range (for any value of that entity) have all that on file, and posted prominently?
Up your game, man.
"Better to have it and not need it,..." etc., etc.
If Bubba at the range office front desk is off taking a dump when Clyde two lanes over shoots himself in the leg, you might want a cellphone with service, and the option to be able to eliminate the middleman, so to speak.
Yet again You're On Your Own.
BTW: https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2015/06/gsw-osht-contingencies-everyday-variety.html
911 Centers all over the country are understaffed. This is because high stress (the operators are talking to people on their worst day) and low pay. They are just telephone operators - so says the politicians/cops/whoever.
The response of the people who run these places (and the software industry who supports them) has been to crush all remnants of humanity out of the job by using software to make everything completely robotic. Enough that people get sick of it pretty quickly.
Don't expect this to get better anytime soon.
After that ambulance/EMT services are going bankrupt all over the country. They way they get paid, or don't get paid, by the counties they support means that they can't afford to put gas in the vehicles.
We had an unfortunate medical incident here at the house last week. Housemate had a stroke, that took away all muscle control of one side of his body. Laying on his bedroom floor, he was unable to get anyone's attention. His phone was on his desk, which was out of reach. He was unable to move enough to touch anything that would make noise. He was on the floor for about 5 or 6 hours. Apparently, at his weight, he was immobile.
Suggestions on possible noisemakers/communicators that could be worn or carried in some manner?
I'm planning on asking his cousin if he had any virus shots. Mid thirties, I think. I'm told that his prognosis for the future isn't good.
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