I don’t know, I am waiting to hear. Unfortunately she left her phone here. I put it on the charger next to where she was sitting. She came out to sit on the porch bench though, even though I told her not to get up, per phone instructions.
Prayers for your housemate and for OP’s friend.
I hope your housemate is ok, BrownParent. Good that you called 911.
(And I love your new avatar, romani! My congratulations, too!)
Yes you did the right thing. You didn’t know there was no head injury.
Brown parent, how did she know she had a heart attack?
A few years ago, I was waiting at an urgent care place to be seen about some minor problem when something similar happened with someone who had just left their office. That patient had come in with flu-like symptoms, and when she left, she fainted and hit her head on the sidewalk.
The people at the urgent care place called 911 because anybody who has just smacked their head into a sidewalk should go to an emergency room.
So you did what the professionals would do. Good for you (even if what you were really thinking was “I don’t want blood all over my car”).
I still don’t know if it is heart or what but she complained of her arm hurting last night. This morning she said it spread to her back. Last week she had some kind of angio-something procedure with a wire up the groin, it was an hour procedure/test and she was out. And she told the paramedics things were tight. A while ago I was told they were still doing tests.
BrownParent, women’s heart attacks can show up as back pain. Good thing for her to get a thorough check, including the angiogram.
Best wishes @romanigypsyeyes lovely avatar!
I hope everyone is ok… @brownparent and the OP.
I can understand why the OP is a little worried. It was the right decision at the time. However, this is one of those things that later on, when the person gets the big ambulance and emergency room bill, there can be “second thoughts”.
I remember several years ago, we had an ambulance bill and emergency room bill. When opening the mail and seeng the large amounts, DH said, “oh, we only have to pay 10% of that.” lol…I looked at the totals and informed him that the large total WAS OUR 10% (The 10% came to a little over $900.) Yikes! Glad our co-pay wasn’t 20%! Emergency room visits can be extremely expensive.
^Our son was hit by a chair lift at a ski resort. It was clearly operator error - people were yelling at the kid to shut the lift down, but he was distracted and not paying attention. They took our son by ambulance to the local airport, by helicopter to the airport in our city, and by ambulance to the hospital. Those three trips, plus the ER expense, added up to almost $11,000. And he was fine! The ski resort agreed they were at fault, but wanted to pay only our out-of-pocket costs. Uh, no, it doesn’t work that way. The insurance company has the FIRST right to any money paid in cases like that. It took months, but the resort finally paid the total cost.
Wow…two ambulances, a helicopter, and ER…and only $11k for the total? Our total was over $9k and it was only ambulance and ER. I think the ambulance alone was about $1200?
that resort got off easy. It could have been a LOT worse money-wise…even w/o any serious injury.
Words from my pediatrician many years ago:
If you have to ask, the answer is YES-- go to the ER.
I think they absolutely apply in this case. If you were even considering that it was serious enough for 911, then you were right in calling.
It’s better to get emergency help and find out everything’s okay, than to not get emergency help find out that was the wrong call. Waaayyy better.
Yea, H fell once at a party (he was scootering down a very steep hill) and hit his head pretty hard. He was a bit shaken and got up and went back to the group. The 3 docs present looked him over superficially and said he “looked” fine,"so we went home. (I believe it was a Sunday.) He went to his internist the next day and was scolded for not going to ER or urgent care, just to be sure things were OK. He was OK, but still, probably we SHOULD have gone to the ER or urgent care.
Please don’t second guess yourself. Brains and heads are very important body parts. When in doubt, by all means, 'YES! The person SHOULD have 911 called and SHOULD be checked out by ER." Your friend could have declined to go to the ER but she chose to go, which was the prudent decision.
Natasha Richardson
Yes, you did the right thing. Those ER docs are amazing. Both S, D, and H have received great care at three different ERs. I, luckily, have never needed more than a trip to Urgent Care. S had to be transported by ambulance 100+ miles. Thankfully, it was covered by insurance - we paid a small co-pay.
My wife and I were visiting a friend and his wife a while back. At the time they had a baby that was under a year old. While we were talking the wife casually mentioned that the baby fell and hit his head that morning. We asked if he was ok, and she said he was fine except for throwing up once. We were pretty concerned at that point and asked if she took him to a doctor, which she hadn’t. My wife and I were both pretty aghast, honestly. Head injury followed by vomiting in a baby and the mother was casually chatting with us over dinner?
The baby turned out to be fine, but I guess my point is that if you’re going to go one way or the other, err on the side of caution.
One of my uncles was skiing (was age 74 at the time and a lifelong athlete) with his wife, fell and hit his head. Felt completely fine. Woke up at 2 am with a headache, headed into the bathroom for Tylenol, collapsed and died.
Better safe than sorry. Am very thankful S2 and DH called 911 instead of waiting to see if I would stop convulsing.
I had a friend who died about ten days after a car accident, where he hit his head ( before airbags), but wasn’t hospitalized.
He was 21.
Omg, I haven’t thought about that in years. We called 911 because he seemed like he had a stroke, and they couldn’t find the street. I had never had a first aid course at the time, ( I was 18), but both my kids had more than basic knowledge at that age. I expect that could have made a difference, if we had known what to look for)
First open casket funeral I ever attended & I sat in front.Not a fan.
I once took a client who was visiting from Japan out to lunch, and he collapsed! Of course, I called an ambulance. Luckily, it turned out the client had forgotten to take medication for low blood pressure, and this happened to him regularly. However, at the time I had no way of knowing this, and I knew little about him other than his name and the company he worked for. When we got to the hospital I called the office and told them what happened. My boss screamed at me, said I was over-reacting and should have called him first. I am not about to stand around letting someone die why I wait for permission to call medical help. I left that job. You did the right thing OP.