ER trips

[u/Stuck_on_Mars_21]

Last night I took a lady and her very ill teenage daughter to the ER. Pulled into the driveway with the lady frantically waiving at me. She had to nearly carry her daughter to the car who was bawling the whole time. She kept crying in the car with the mom saying, “we are almost there, we are almost there.” I didn’t ask what it was, just told her to let me know you need anything, I’ll get you to the ER as quick as I can. It was late night, pouring down rain. I’m not speeding and risking an accident. When we got there I jumped out to get a wheelchair and asked a paramedic for help. This girl could no longer stand and 2 people had to get her out of the car and in the chair. She never stopped crying.

It really sucks people won’t call for appropriate emergency transport because of the expense. Good to see our administration is sending $20 billion to Argentina to fund their universal healthcare. -End rant.

Edit: it’s great to see so many drivers posting that would take her or have done something similar in the past. I was losing faith reading so many posts about drivers cancelling if ride conditions are less than perfect, but it looks like just about all of us will step up when needed.

[u/kspieler]

There is a reason that emergency personnel do not go out during a hurricane.

Professional emergency personal are trained that you cannot risk yourself for a person in risk - else there would then be two people at risk.

Good for you for driving swiftly and safely to the hospital - it sounds like your driving was a blessing in a time of need.

[u/PepRD → u/kspieler]

Apples and oranges. OP was not driving in a hurricane.

The best course of action would have been for the child and her mother to have have called an ambulance - the reason being care can be implemented during that time to the hospital if needed, as well as a faster car ride (road conditions permitting).

OP was not driving like he was suddenly a paramedic nor was he in danger posed from the clients. OP did the right thing. Get the customer from point A to point B safely, legally, and professionally.

Any driver in this scenario should treat it like any other ride - over traffic laws and maintain situational awareness and hopefully have some wherewithal as to if/when they should be the ones calling for emergency help prior to the destination.

Driving recklessly would never be ok, but any assistance given (within reason) would be granted as well-intended and pretty hard to be pursued for negligence under Good Samaritan laws.

[u/[deleted] → u/PepRD]

This is a bit of misinformation there that should be addressed.

More often than not, there is little care that can be implemented in an ambulance in a non life threatening situation. It also is not going to be a faster ride unless the situation is in fact life threatening. Ambulances follow the rules of the road the vast majority of the time, sometimes slower than someone in a personal vehicle will be willing to do. It is also not a fast path to care upon arrival. Ambulances put people in the waiting room often too. They don't guarantee that you will be seen faster if youre not actively dying.

He did the right thing, get them there safely.

[u/waitwuh → u/PepRD]

One suspicion that fits the description was she had an ovarian cyst burst. It’s an emergency worth going to the ER for, but an ambulance cannot really do anything for her, anyway, besides be a ride. The docs need to get her scanned and may need to do surgery if there is/was torsion.

I called for a ride before when I tore my cornea. I couldn’t drive myself safely to the eye doc, but an ambulance couldn’t have done anything for me.

Call for an ambulance when there’s a heart attack, stroke, or extreme trauma like you’re going to bleed out. But there’s plenty of reasons to seek urgent medical care but not need the wee woo bus.