ICE ICE Baby

"14 year old female, unconscious"

Getting sent to an unconscious 14 year old in a park on a Saturday night means drunk! OK, I'm sure there will be an anonymous commenter who will list all the other possible causes of unconsciousness in a teenager and tell be it is negligent to suggest it's alcohol but let's face it. She's drunk. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my hat! 

We found the entrance to the park, chucked ALL the bags on the trolley bed to cover ALL possibilities and headed off into the darkness. We followed the noise and illumination of cigarettes to a group of 6 drunk teenagers. Lying on the floor, covered in vomit was our patient. Not only was she drunk, she was freezing cold. We briefly assessed her, got her on the bed and off into the warm. None of the friends were willing to come with her and none of them knew her parents phone number. That puts us in an awkward position of transporting a minor, to a hospital which is possibly further away from her home and unable to let her parents know she was safe.

Her blood pressure was extremely low so we raised her legs and gave her some fluids. We only had her first name and she was well and truly out of it. If I was her, I'd be on the hunt for some new friends when I came round! Useless! We opened her vomit covered bag and got out her mobile phone to hunt for 'Mum' or 'Dad' in the phone book. If we were really lucky we'd find an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact. For those not aware, ICE contacts was something that started in 2005 and the idea is that everyone has a contact in their phone book called ICE so that in the case of an emergency an ambulance crew, police or hospital staff can contact your next of kin. A very easy, simple solution, especially as everyone has mobile phones these days! There is however, a problem! Screen Lock! 

Most people have their phone locked. Despite the issue being brought to the attention of phone companies no solution has yet been found and therefor we were left in a situation like tonight. An unconscious teenager, no idea where she is from, no way of contacting her parents and no access to her phone! Luckily, she was drunk and it was more than likely that within the hour she would be awake enough to talk to hospital staff. Suppose though, she had been hit by a car and was fighting for her life. How would her parents find out? 

We got her to hospital and left her in the safety of the staff. All we had for them was that she was possibly 14 and her first name. 1am is no time for a girl of that age to be out, let alone drinking. I wonder where her parents thought she was!

This job did make me think about the ICE system and how widely used it is. I have an ICE contact on my phone but I also have my phone locked, so it's useless! Only once have I ever been able to contact a relative via an ICE contact so does the campaign need some new attention?!

Do you have an ICE contact in your phone?

Do you have a phone lock on?

Perhaps now, you'll ensure your children have them on theirs or at least have the ICE contact on their screen saver. Let me know! I'd be interested to hear if the novelty has warn off or if it never got going.