When Seconds Count: GETTING EMERGENCY HELP TO YOUR RURAL HOME

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COUNTRY SKILLS

by Mona Vanek

We country folks know an emergency always happens at the worst time, generally disrupting our plans. But we're capable, independent, and self-reliant. It's our lifestyle: we deal with it. The calf gets scours, we cure it. The pump quits, we fix it. The tractor loses a wheel, we replace it. We know what to do.

We don't call for outside help unless it's unavoidable. Maybe that's why, when we need emergency medical help, we're woefully unprepared to get it. I know how disastrous that can be.

A sound woke me shortly after I'd fallen asleep on Good Friday eve, 1987. Beside me, my husband moaned, "Oh, my jaw's hurting."

I turned on the light and looked at him. "Are you all right?"

"Something's hurting my chest," he said, "and my arm..."

Labored breathing choked off his words. His face was ashen; sweat beaded it. Suddenly, my heartbeat thundered into my ears as I thought, "Heart attack!"

Grabbing the bedside phone, I called a nurse who'd attended a home-extension club meeting that I'd hosted at my house earlier that week. Joyce was her name. I remembered her saying that she rode with the local ambulance.

"Art's having a heart attack, can you call the ambulance?" I asked. For the life of me, I could not think of anything else to do. Oh, I was so ignorant! So naive! So trusting that a phone call would swiftly whisk an ambulance to the door! As I learned within the next half hour, when you live 50 miles from the nearest hospital and the ambulance crew is volunteer, that's not what happens.

Because I'd reacted quickly, in less than five minutes Joyce had vital oxygen flowing into Art and the ambulance was on its way.

"Get your car headlights shining at the driveway," she commanded. I did as she instructed, then sat in the dark, waiting in helpless terror for the ambulance that seemed never to come. When it did arrive, people seemed to appear from everywhere. What they did looked totally chaotic, but in minutes the ambulance disappeared with Art aboard, racing headlong into the night, sirens wailing, lights flashing.

Following that event, the realization of how being unprepared can spell disaster nudged me; I enrolled in classes and became an emergency medical technician (EMT). I've served on our local ambulance for ten years and learned things that all rural residents should know to be prepared for a medical emergency.

Before Emergency Strikes

Know the telephone number to summon emergency services. Although in most cities 9-1-1 may be the number to call, not all rural counties are in the 9-1-1 program. Check your local phone directory to find out, or ask your local ambulance crew.

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