Please update your emergency contact information. | Hacker News Reader

Please update your emergency contact information.

35 pointste_platt31 comments

This morning while out running I came across a woman who had collapsed on the sidewalk. Another runner and I performed cpr until paramedics arrived. We were able to contact her husband through her iPhone. I don't know if this story has a happy ending yet but I realized I didn't have an emergency contact setup on my phone. I probably could have dug through her contacts but because she had her first contact as "Emergency Contact" it made things just a little easier.

Also, you might want to take a few minutes and read up on the latest cpr techniques. I had a few training courses about 20 years ago but the paramedics pointed out some things I could have done better - faster chest compressions than what I was taught, for example.

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This advice won't be very helpful if your phone requires a PIN to unlock. Consider changing your wallpaper to contain emergency information (i.e. http://atmac.org/put-emergency-information-on-your-iphone-wa... for iPhone) in this case.

Seriously, putting ICE info so it's always visible on your phone must be the most depressing thing you could ever do. I understand that some people have medical conditions that puts them at risk every day, but the absolute majority of normal, healthy people do not need this.

On the last point, I hadn't noticed until I looked it up just now that a bunch of organizations are now advocating a compressions-only approach to CPR ("CCR"), as opposed to the alternating compressions-and-ventilation approach I was taught a long time ago, especially for non-professionals administering CPR. One article: http://emsresponder.com/print/Emergency--Medical-Services/CA...

As a former police officer, I highly advocate having an ICE contact in your phone. It really can make a huge difference.

That said, it doesn't do a lick of good to have an ICE contact set up if, when the first responder picks up your phone, it asks for a password to get into it. It's one of those cases where you need to weigh the balance on convenience vs security.

Sounds like an golden opportunity for a software tweak.

Have the ability to configure this stuff on the lock screen.

Either text (this phone owned by bleh) or a maybe a button to dial an emergency number.

I can think of an iPhone immediately (cringe) and how you can make an emergency call when the phone is locked.

Have it just display something like "Emergency contact" who you can dial without displaying any more information on the person, not even the phone number when it dials.

Having this person know personal information about you (blood type, etc) would then still be relatively secure versus openly available, and the person would have little risk of getting prank called if your phone is stolen outside of an emergency situation.

In naming your emergency contact entry (or entries), use the prefix ICE (In Case of Emergency); first responders supposedly look for that.

EXAMPLE: "ICE - Spouse - Jane Doe"

(See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07...)

EDIT: I've put some basic emergency info about myself into my ICE entry -- my name, blood type, etc.

Phones break, especially when you crash into them with cars (which might be how you get hurt, too.) Medical bracelets and dog tags are somewhat more durable.

http://www.dogtagsonline.com/

http://www.americanmedical-id.com/

Dogtags and bracelets aren't a bad idea at all, but a lot of people won't wear them.

A cell-phone ICE entry can be a big help in situations not involving a violent impact, such as heart attacks, strokes, seizures, etc.

Granting that there's no perfect solution, any inexpensive emergency-prep measure you can take is better than nothing.

Dogtags and bracelets aren't a bad idea at all, but a lot of people won't wear them.

In fact, for some professions (woodworking, electrical work, factory work, etc), dogtags and bracelets are prohibited.

What are the implications in terms of privacy case it's stolen.

The latest info I've heard says that medical people ignore blood type information these days - the consequences of written down info being wrong are high enough that they'll just give you type O "universal" blood until they've got time to do the test... (I can't seem to quickly find any corroborating web pages to support that claim though...)

You could do something like my father, who's an avid cyclist, does and put your emergency contact information, DOB, blood type and all that on your helmet. I'd think this would go doubly for anyone on a motorcycle as you'll end in an accident eventually.

As a motorcycle rider, I'm intrigued by the (mistyped, I'm sure) phrase, "You'll end in an accident eventually" (which, as typed, has significant truth). Wouldn't really need much info at that point, eh?

Oh, it's a deliberate thing. I don't know many long-time motorcycle riders that haven't broken something at some point from a crash.

I think he was referring to your choice of "end in" instead of "end up in".

My wife and I are cyclists. There are many times when I'm out on the road by myself, and my cell phone is either in my jersey pocket or in the bag under my seat. If in the jersey, in a crash, it can fly out. If in the seat bag, paramedics may not look for it. Even if they did, it gets locked after "x" amount of time (company security policy). I do however wear a RoadID. They have a product that you wear (several different styles), and an "interactive" version. This version will give paramedics a number to call to get your information...and you can list everything - name, emergency contact, insurance, drug allergies, all of it. Since they must have your pin (which is on the piece you are wearing), it is fairly secure, but not 100% secure (I think we can all agree nothing is 100% secure).

http://www.roadid.com/Common/Products.aspx

As dctoedt mentioned, creating an ICE entry is a great first step. But it is unfortunate how few people actually take the time, and it's not a complete solution.

If anyone is willing, I would love to get even more survey results regarding my soon-to-launch emergency contact service (Still working on the UI/UX and very close to the MVP). Wrt creating an ICE entry, I'm seeing less than 30% in the survey have done so.

The survey link is http://bit.ly/MyECInfoSurvey

Please feel free to pass the link along to friends and family.

Cheers, Shawn

Ps, since this is HN after all, MyEC Info is a bootstrapped, single-founder startup. If this is a topic you are passionate about please feel free to contact me.

Small point: I stopped taking the survey after a couple of questions, because I'm not in your demographic. Most of the questions involved my child/partner's emergency info, and I'm single and childless, so I ended up with No on most questions.

Perhaps you know this and are factoring it in, but at any rate, that's why I didn't finish the survey. It might be good to have some qualifying questions at the top, or even a note about the demographic you'd like to respond.

Hey George, Thanks for comment and for taking the time. This issue with the structure of the questions has come up and I've been working on a new survey with some qualifiers up front to direct the flow. Simply wasn't ready when the original topic was posted and I decided to be a little opportunistic.

Although those with children are my target demographic, issues of emergency preparedness affect everyone. Hopefully I'll be able to solve some of those issues across all demographics.

That said, please finish the survey if you have the time. There is a question at the end about number of children that does allow me to factor things in a bit.

Thanks again, Shawn

What's the response rate on that survey? How do you send traffic to it?

Since the post yesterday, 24 clicks through to the survey and 4 submissions.

Thus far the bulk has been seeded through my own contact lists. I did try to drive some traffic via AdWords but I didn't see great results (it's my first time using AdWords, so I'm still in the learning phase.)

I'm not sure about everyone else's state, but here we now have an emergency contact list as part of your driver's license record, so it's easy to look up even if all they have is a name.

I keep a couple small laser-printed, laminated contact info cards in or on my running / cycling gear.

Hey Ja27, I'm only aware of two public service initiatives to link emergency contact information to DMV records, Ohio and Illinois.

If you don't mind my asking, what state do you live in?

Cheers, Shawn (My email address is in my profile if you prefer not to post here...)

Colorado and Florida do it too now. I'm surprised more states don't.

http://www.toinformfamiliesfirst.org/

Awesome, thanks for the link. Hopefully it will only be a matter of time before more states setup their own programs.

Many years ago when I attended First Aid/CPR training from the American Red Cross, I was told that you can actually get in serious trouble for performing CPR without a valid license. They explained that it's quite common to break ribs while performing chest compressions and these broken ribs can puncture a lung. If the individual you're helping only had a very weak pulse that you missed, you might have just made things a lot worse, perhaps even killing them.

I was told having an active AMR license legally protects you from any such accidents - especially since you are obliged to assist - but if you're untrained and unlicensed you could be held responsible (manslaughter?). Is this still the case?

See this for a start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

What's the point of mentioning the make of her phone? Would you have been less able to contact her husband using a Samsung?

Are you accusing him of phone prejudice?

I didn't really mean anything by it. I do mobile app development and referenced is like a car mechanic might mention the make of a car involved in an accident. In any case, whatever your phone please take a minute and make sure your info is up to date.

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