Have you ever called 999 or 112?

ANXIOUS · 07-04-2015 10:10PM

I was cycling to work at around 730 am down manor street in dublin. People who know it will understand is always busy with commuters. Cycling along i see a man laying prone across the path, by the time I stopped I'd gone past him. So I got off the bike and walked back up to him bent down couldn't really tell if he was breathing. So took out my phone rang 999 asked for an ambulance.

With this the lad hopped up, picked up my bike and started walking off. So I said to him that's my bike, he ah Jaysus sorry pal I wasn't trying to rob you. Then he asks me what time it is I go 730, then he goes ah Jaysus no im after missing my signing in day.

So I just explained to the person on the phone that everything was grand. What shocked me was that it was chucker block and not one driver got out to see how he was.

punisher5112 · 07-04-2015 10:14PM

ANXIOUS wrote: »

I was cycling to work at around 730 am down manor street in dublin. People who know it will understand is always busy with commuters. Cycling along i see a man laying prone across the path, by the time I stopped I'd gone past him. So I got off the bike and walked back up to him bent down couldn't really tell if he was breathing. So took out my phone rang 999 asked for an ambulance.

With this the lad hopped up, picked up my bike and started walking off. So I said to him that's my bike, he ah Jaysus sorry pal I wasn't trying to rob you. Then he asks me what time it is I go 730, then he goes ah Jaysus no im after missing my signing in day.

So I just explained to the person on the phone that everything was grand. What shocked me was that it was chucker block and not one driver got out to see how he was.

They would have got their car taken obviously.

ANXIOUS · 07-04-2015 10:17PM

punisher5112 wrote: »

They would have got their car taken obviously.

He was out of his head on drugs, weighed about 2 stone. He couldn't walk my bike let alone cycle it.

hfallada · 07-04-2015 10:17PM

Yeah I was walking down a street in Munich and a woman at a door of an arcade was getting robbed and shouting for the police. So I called 112, asked for the police and this being Germany. I was told to hang up and call 15. That 112 is not the number for the police and they wont help me. So eventually another person called the police on the street while I was on the phone to operator.

No joke dozens of people on the street kept the door of the arcade shut, to stop the robbers running away. It was the funniest thing as it was all twenty something girls stopping this women getting robbed. You would never see that in Ireland.

delw · 07-04-2015 10:29PM

yeah when the son broke his leg a couple of years ago

Summer wind · 07-04-2015 10:40PM

Yes when the shop I was working in at the time was robbed at knifepoint by 3 fellas wearing balaclavas. When my car was broken into. When my neighbours house went on fire. Also rang them when I arrived at 4 different car crashes.

newmug · 07-04-2015 10:48PM

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Ya - had to do chest compressions and such until they arrived as well, but he must have been there a while already (which seemed odd - couldn't have been that long since previous train), as was already blue.

Do you know if he survived? Sorry to hear you experienced that.

KomradeBishop · 07-04-2015 11:03PM

newmug wrote: »

Do you know if he survived? Sorry to hear you experienced that.

Nah he was pretty much gone - ta; it was after a long day out though, and I was quite tired, so my experience of it was more surreal than anything else. Strange way to end a day.

Wibbs · 07-04-2015 11:03PM

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Ya - had to do chest compressions and such until they arrived as well, but he must have been there a while already (which seemed odd - couldn't have been that long since previous train), as was already blue.

Been there myself KB. Go into automatic mode, then shíte yourself later. Well I did anyway. And a few laters afterwards. Of the two I was involved in I know one pulled through, dunno about the other chap. Sadly not surprised your guy may have been there for a while. Most people seem to turn into either "nothing to do with me" or gawkers, or just zone out in mild panic. In the situations I was in it was elderly men and women who were the ones who turned out to be worth a damn and tried to help.

I've dialled 999 a few times for rellies and twice for people I knew. I have to say the ambulance guys and gals don't get nearly enough credit for their professionalism and real humanity. Ditto for the Guards and Firemen too. If it's a burglary or car theft my experience with the Gardai has been mixed to say the least, but if the shít's really hit the fan and humanity is in jeopardy then you couldn't ask for better IMH and IME.

jungleman · 07-04-2015 11:06PM

The last time I rang 999 was when I was finished work and walking down O' Connell St and saw what appeared to be an Irish junkie chasing a tourist around trying to smack him with a hammer. It was just bizarre.

KomradeBishop · 07-04-2015 11:09PM

Wibbs wrote: »

Been there myself KB. Go into automatic mode, then shíte yourself later. Well I did anyway. And a few laters afterwards. Of the two I was involved in I know one pulled through, dunno about the other chap. Sadly not surprised your guy may have been there for a while. Most people seem to turn into either "nothing to do with me" or gawkers, or just zone out in mild panic. In the situations I was in it was elderly men and women who were the ones who turned out to be worth a damn and tried to help.

I've dialled 999 a few times for rellies and twice for people I knew. I have to say the ambulance guys and gals don't get nearly enough credit for their professionalism and real humanity. Ditto for the Guards and Firemen too. If it's a burglary or car theft my experience with the Gardai has been mixed to say the least, but if the shít's really hit the fan and humanity is in jeopardy then you couldn't ask for better IMH and IME.

Yea that was exactly it - automatic mode - and I think being very tired did me good on blunting any potential aftereffects of it.

Zoning-out/mild-panic did seem to be the look on passers-by faces - a couple of families with kids passed too

rainbow kirby · 07-04-2015 11:13PM

Once, when some scumbags set a pile of plastic on fire in the alleyway behind my apartment block.

Have had to call NHS 111 once, when I fainted on the tube, got into work but still felt like pure crap.

07-04-2015 11:16PM

I'm surprised more people don't faint on the tube. The cattle cars to Auschwitz were less packed and better ventilated.

HugsiePie · 07-04-2015 11:22PM

When I was a kid it was hammered into me you call 911 for the police.....no one actually told me you could call 911 for an ambulance or fire brigade (thanks Obama Clinton).....so when I got a colouring book from my local supermarket I was completely baffled as to why the kid was calling 911 when his granddad collapsed and an ambulance arrived. Bewildered by this I decided to give 911 a ring see what the real story was.....got through the operator and started giving her my address before my parents copped what I was doing.....

The thread is "Have you ever" not "have you ever had to" :pac:

Little CuChulainn · 07-04-2015 11:28PM

Summer wind wrote: »

Yes when the shop I was working in at the time was robbed at knifepoint by 3 fellas wearing balaclavas. When my car was broken into. When my neighbours house went on fire. Also rang them when I arrived at 4 different car crashes.

Sounds like a rough day.

Toots · 08-04-2015 12:55AM

3 times

First was the fire brigade, when the local scumbags had set fire to a car on the forecourt of the petrol station, flames were huge and really near to a row of houses. I was on my way home at the time, and within a few minutes of making the call, I met two fire engines coming the opposite way heading to the fire.

Second was also fire brigade. In my apartment complex we have these little things that look like mini bungalows and they're where the communal bins are. Someone decided to set fire to one and it went up as a torch. The roof caved in just as I arrived home from work and seeing as there were loads of people milling around watching, I figured someone had already called the fire brigade, but thought I'd phone just in case. Turned out nobody had called, and by the time a crew got up (about 10 mins in fairness) the whole she had just about collapsed in on itself. Bystanders got some great footage on their phones though :rolleyes:

Third was the ambulance for my little boy, scariest thing I've ever had to do. He'd fallen and hit his head, then later that night started vomiting in his sleep. I phoned the nurse-line thing from my health insurance and she told me to ring an ambulance straight away. Luckily he was fine, but my heart nearly stopped when she said it.

Mint Aero · 08-04-2015 01:09AM

Just did there now. Says to yer one it's for AH as I hadn't called them before and didn't want to be left out. That's grand says she I better call myself too as I'm an AH'er aswell.

We're going for drinks Friday

None of the above happened but I'm still gonna go for the drink

Gillo · 08-04-2015 01:21AM

I'd to call them last year when the apartment below my house had a massive explosion. Looking back it was the strangest conversation I've had in year, 3am I hear a massive bang and look outside to see flames coming up the window, grab jeans and a hoody and manage to get out. Standing outside I see my next door neighbour (there's a big crowd outside at this stage) and ask him did anyone call the fire brigade? He replies I'm not sure. So I said "I suppose I better ring them... Oh crap my phones inside, can I borrow yours".

I've no idea if it was adrenalin or shock but it was a pretty casual conversation considering what was going on.

seamus · 08-04-2015 10:29AM

Yeah, couple of times for traffic incidents. Some I was involved in, some I was not.

Once rang them when I came upon a bunch of teenagers joyriding a truck cab around Ballyfermot. The damage they could have done with that.

^^ On Gillo's point about people standing by, it's quite mental how much people freeze up. Neighbour across the way from me came running out of her house with her kids one evening screaming that her house was on fire. My sister in law happened to be calling into me at that time so let me know. Went across, and sure enough, one of the lamps in her living room had caught fire against the curtain. She was frozen in shock, which is fine, she had her kids.
Another neighbour standing there panicking, basically asking "what do we do??!". And another one full of energy and pumped up about doing *something*, but he didn't have a clue what to do next. So I had to ask if anyone had a fire extinguisher. Energetic guy had one in his car, and to be fair to him offered to go inside and use it. Told panicky guy to go in and turn off the electricity. "How?". Jesus wept, the same way you do it in your own house.
The woman in the house wanted to ring the fire brigade but could barely string a sentence together, let alone use her phone, so I got another bystander to do that.

It was funny though that so many people asked if we needed to ring the fire brigade. Even after energetic guy, fair dues to him, went in and put out the fire, people were asking if we should ring and cancel the fire brigade.

I suppose people worry about whether they're being a hassle for the emergency services and hmm and haw for a few minutes before realising, "Yeah, this probably needs a professional...."

Adyx · 08-04-2015 12:03PM

Fire, ambulance and guards, many, many times. Mainly in work but a few times when I was off too.

Summer wind · 08-04-2015 12:33PM

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

Sounds like a rough day.

Yippee ki yay babe, yippee ki yay:)

The Strawman Argument · 08-04-2015 05:44PM

The time I started a chimney fire when I was 8, burning things was a bit of a hobby for me at the time.

There a few weeks ago when I found a body on the road. Turned out she was an alcoholic and was after relapsing, her friends eventually came along and insisted I wait with her so they could pop down to the off license and buy a few more cans. Upon returning, one of them decided he couldn't take having to look at her in that condition, so he popped open a can of tenants there and then while going on about how awful alcoholism is.

Tarzana2 · 08-04-2015 05:51PM

Yeah, called 112 a few years ago when I walked past a girl passed out on the street. It was near the Mater in Dublin so luckily an ambulance arrived within minutes. The ambulance staff made a big deal of thanking me for ringing them which makes me think what I did is pretty rare. Depressing.

Have you ever called 999 or 112?

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