What is “911?”
During the recent tragic TX flooding, a man punched-out a window in an effort to escape from an unstable trailer.
In the process he cut his arm, badly.
Over the next few minutes, he bled to death, although he was continuously surrounded by family members!
Of course, family members immediately called 911, and then they waited!
But, no EMS units could reach the location quickly, due to the scale of the disaster.
In light of the foregoing, we all need reminding that a 911 call is nothing more than a “request for service”
A 911 call will usually get help rolling your way, but in the immediate circumstance you are the sole “first responder!”
In the above case, a tourniquet, applied immediately, likely would have saved this man’s life!
“Waiting around for help to arrive,” while doing nothing to abrogate the threat, is tantamount to a death sentence!
As I’ve noted many times, in most parts of the nation, PDs and FDs are now critically short-staffed. Response times are way up.
The foregoing should motivate all of us to ramp-up our personal preparedness, in both kit and training.
When an emergency is upon us (as in the incident above), we’ll surely call 911, but we’re going right to our life-saving work, without delay.
We’re not “waiting!”
“The reason for ‘delay’ is usually not laziness, nor unwillingness. The reason is more often that necessary knowledge has never been translated into a simple, usable, and systematic form.”
Atul Gawande
/John
