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Emergencies Can

When an emergency occurs, it is crucial to immediately call for help rather than attempting to handle the situation alone. The document describes two cases where failure to call 911 had tragic consequences. In the first case, a man died in a house fire after trying to douse the flames himself instead of evacuating and calling for firefighters. In the second case, nearly half of heart attack patients drove themselves to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance, despite emergency responders being able to administer life-saving treatment much faster. Both incidents emphasize that when facing any emergency situation, people must throw out hesitation and promptly seek professional assistance by calling 911.

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Victor Hugo Choque
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20 views1 page

Emergencies Can

When an emergency occurs, it is crucial to immediately call for help rather than attempting to handle the situation alone. The document describes two cases where failure to call 911 had tragic consequences. In the first case, a man died in a house fire after trying to douse the flames himself instead of evacuating and calling for firefighters. In the second case, nearly half of heart attack patients drove themselves to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance, despite emergency responders being able to administer life-saving treatment much faster. Both incidents emphasize that when facing any emergency situation, people must throw out hesitation and promptly seek professional assistance by calling 911.

Uploaded by

Victor Hugo Choque
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Emergencies Can’t Wait

When an emergency strikes, will you immediately call for help?


Although the answer would seem obvious, most people fail to
act quickly, and even when they decide to act, they fail to call for help.
When emergency situations occur, we must throw out our normal habits
of caution and restraint and immediately seek the help of professionals.
THE SINK IN the bathroom was running, and fi refi ghters found a container
of water nearby after they dragged the man, unconscious, from an
intensely hot and smoky apartment fi re in Syracuse, New York.
As stunned neighbors watched, fi refi ghters laid the man on a snowy
driveway, pumped his chest, and puffed oxygen into his lungs. The fi refi
ghters could not save him.
It appears he tried to douse the fl ames himself before smoke overwhelmed
him, authorities said. He did not dial 911. “People think they
can tolerate the smoke conditions because they watch movies like Backdraft,
which is ridiculous,” says Syracuse fi refi ghter Lt. Jeff Sargent.
The fi re was so hot that the couches were scorched to their springs
and the television melted down to its tube.
“The only message is ‘Get out,’” says John Cowin, Syracuse fi re chief.
“A small fi re doubles every minute. This is an unfortunate situation.
Whenever you are dealing with a fi re emergency, a police emergency, or
a medical emergency, call it in immediately. Give us a chance to do our
jobs.”
Doctors found that nearly half of almost 800,000 heart-attack patients they
studied drove themselves or were driven by a friend or family member to
the hospital instead of calling 911 for an ambulance. This occurred even
though emergency medical personnel can cut in half the time it takes to receive
potentially life-saving treatments such as clot-buster drugs. (University
of Alabama at Birmingham 2002)

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