Put ICE in your Cell Phone to Get Quick TLC in an Emergency

If ambulance paramedics need to help you in an emergency, it is useful for them to know your next of kin. If you’re unconscious, of course, it can be difficult or impossible for them to know. But if you have a cell phone, and have the next of kin clearly identified, they can call the person and you can get your family member’s help sooner—IF the paramedic knows how to immediately find the number stored in your phone.

The East Anglian Ambulance Service launched a campaign to broadly spread a free and effective way to do this, after the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005.

Advice: Add the word ICE (“in case of emergency”) to your cell phone’s address book, with the phone number of the person the emergency medical technician (EMT) should phone. To store more than one name, use the word ICE1, ICE2, etc. If you don’t know how to use the address book on your cell, tape a note with the phone number onto the phone.

Forward this to your friends and family.

Thanks to Cheryl Long of Axis 1 in Barnwell, SC, for sharing this idea. A big virtual hug to you, Cheryl! { xxooxx }

Read another emergency story, or read a 2005 article on this.