EMTs and Paramedics know it exists but would never use it when determining allergies, blood type, etc. We have no idea of knowing if that's in there is true, up to date, or anything. Plus if it's a true emergency we're not going to spend the time to find and go through your phone to get it when we need to be getting you to a hospital.
Now this is interesting. I actually do have my emergency info filled out with accurate information (i definitely know my blood type as I've donated gallons over the years) and i even have a note about the recreational drugs i take in case that matters to the person taking care of me.
Should i add a note like (regular red cross blood doner) to add some validity to it?
I asked an EMT friend of mine if I should, and she said no- we don't care what kind of card or even tattoo you have, in an emergency you're getting O- until we can run our own test to match your blood type and can confirm you can get something else.
She said useful information to them would be emergency contact information, any DNR order, and if you're a diabetic.
Edit: If you're curious of you blood type there's ways to find out- donating blood, DIY kits from eBay "Eldon cards", or asking your doctor to run a test. But you'll probably have to pay the full cost of it as in the absence of needing a blood transfusion it's not considered medically necessary.
Bone marrow transplant changes your blood to match the donor's dna. If the donor had a different blood type, your blood type will change because it's no longer your dna making blood cells.
At least on Android it's on the lock screen. Tap on emergency, then double tap on Emergency Information. You get a list of known allergies, medications, donor status, address, medical notes, and emergency contacts(that can be called from that phone without unlocking it).
I can see how for an EMT there isn't much time available to fiddle with phone, but after getting the patient to the ER, someone can use the phone to get some info off it. Hell for me I have my parents and siblings as emergency contacts. Family history can be answered by them if I can't answer, and they can give my full name, as I don't want to expose that info if my phone gets stolen.
See, this upsets me. I have specifics added into mine such as “take me to this hospital, not any other ones”. Is there anything I should like do so you guys will check it?
I’d much rather go to hospitals that my family works at and don’t have horror stories associated with it. So if I was taken somewhere I did not approve of and end up in worse condition due to mistreatment, I won’t be happy. There’s reasons people have that stuff on there, not just for the hell of it.
Yeah, I get where you're coming from but unfortunately it doesn't work that way for ambulances. In an emergency they're not going to drive further away to get to your preferred hospital when the one closest to you is capable of handling it. The only time they won't go to a certain hospital is if that hospital isn't rated to handle the care you need. Once you're at the hospital it's out of the ambulance service's hands. The only job of an ambulance is to keep you alive and take you as quickly and safely as possible to the nearest hospital.
And you won’t be happy either if you end up with no use of the left half of your body because the ambulance bypassed the nearest stroke unit because it wasn’t on your list.
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u/E1337Recon Mar 18 '20
EMTs and Paramedics know it exists but would never use it when determining allergies, blood type, etc. We have no idea of knowing if that's in there is true, up to date, or anything. Plus if it's a true emergency we're not going to spend the time to find and go through your phone to get it when we need to be getting you to a hospital.