How do you deal with a medical emergency??
 

Last nite, around midnite DW woke me and said:" call 911, I think I'm having a heart attack". So I called, and the firemen and the ambulance came and did their thing, and she ended up in the local hospital emergency room. It turned out NOT to be her heart( tests ongoing),and Dr. says she will probably come home this afternoon. All this made me think: What if this had happened in Italy? We speak very little Italian, just enough to handle basic things ; how do you deal with the firemen or ambulance people? Is there a "911" number, and will they speak English?? Has anyone out there had any experience with this kind of situation? Let me hear from you, please.

Scary, Trav Man...my sympathies to you and your wife...know the feeling.

Not bad idea to get informed before leaving the country on the specifics of each country you will be visiting. Check on-line with the American consulate.

More and more, hotels actually have this information on their information sheet that is on the desk in each hotel room...but as you say...you wouldnt want to wait until the emergency to start looking into it!

first, i hope she will be ok. second, i would recommend writing out, in Italian, exactly what you would want an ambulance team or physician to know in the kind of situation you described, including a list of medications currently being used and any allergies to medications.

112 is the emergency number throughout Europe. There are national ones too, but 112 is easy to remember and will work in any EU country.

However I wouldn't rely on the operator speaking English unless you are in a country like Britain (obviously) or the Netherlands or Scandanavia.

It other countries you best bet is probably to call your hotel reception (assuming they speak English) and ask them to help.

Learn a few essential phrases, or have them written down somewhere just in case.

Scandinavia, sorry!

The *medical* emergency number in Italy is 118.

If you are in a villa or apartment somewhere it is good to learn the address in the local language. Hopefully no one will have to call 112 but necessary to know the number.. AND have a phone from which to make the call, of course.

Italy has an excellent medical system but always it matters when and where you have a problem. If only one can time one's problem (heart) when in the vicinity of Cleveland Medical center, John Hopkins, Mayo etc. But it could occur - even in the States - when fishing in a remote location in Montana or elsewhere or in Baja or further afield. Without talking about it being a weekend, in August, a major holiday etc.

The same applies in Italy.

If you are taken to a hospital - rather than being able to choose yourself because you feel chest pains rather than a full attack - you will be taken to the nearest competent hospital which would not necessarily be your first choice.

Forewarned ....

If you are someone with a posible predisposition etc it would be essential to have appropriate insurance cover knowing in advance what you should do whilst in Italy and know what are the best hospitals in the area you are visiting.

I am not a doctor but my business is medical diagnostics in the cardiac field. Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] if you wish.

"AND have a phone from which to make the call, of course."

Yep, I've felt more than a little nervous staying at really budget hotels where there were no phones in the room that dial out AND there is no night concierge to call down to in case something like this arises.

After three serious medical situations in France and Greece, I now always carry a foreign language dictionary with medical terms in it.
I tried using my Spanish in France,explaining the symptoms. It didn't work so I learned my lesson and never go without the correct dictionary.On the brighter side, we have been impressed by the care and the compassion we recieved in these instances. And needless to say the costs ranged from very low to none at all.

When my late husband had a heart attack in a hotel I found that the hotel phone did not have a dial tone. We did not know there was not anyone at the hotel desk from midnight to somewhere around 6:00AM the next morning. Thank goodness I had my cellphone and knew the city's direct (7 digit) emergency number as if I had dialed 911 I would have reached the CA Highway Patrol and it would have taken much longer to reach the city's emergency number. And reaching them I found out that the hotel locked their front door and the emergency people did NOT have a key to enter so I had to run down three flight of stairs to unlock the door and let them in. Long story short they got my husband to the hospital but he didn't live.

I have no idea if the final outcome would have been different if we had been staying in a fully staffed hotel but I will never stay in a lodging that isn't staffed 24/7.

My very best wishes to your wife TravelingMan. We had a family member taken to the hospital night before last as it appeared he had a heart attack. No idea of the final test results. May your wife be found to be healthy and well.

I would call the emergency number that I received from the with the trip insurance package I purchased before the trip. I've only had to call for help once in a non-emergency situation, but the response was immediate.

So sorry to hear this and yes, such a thing is scary no matter where you are, but more so when one is far from home. We've been traveling the world non-stop since 2006 so have had LOTS of experience with this and so far all of them have been really good.

I had chest pains when I was in Greece and we went directly to the local hospital in Rhodes ( that our pension owner suggested) and luckily the doctor spoke English and it was not a heart attack. I had a similar experience in the UK. I was not charged for either visit.

I've also been to hospitals in Vienna, Spain, Melk and we have had extensive dental care or doctor visits in Croatia, Spain, UK, Sweden and several ambulance rides. The care has been superb and very cheap or free. Often the language area IS a problem, but usually someone speaks some English.

I spent a week in a hospital in Melk and had emergency surgery when I had a bike wreck there last August. Almost no one spoke English there ( including my surgeon) but we managed as one doctor there did.

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2009/0...mergency-.html

We continued traveling even though my arm was paralyzed for 11 months and I'm still recovering. The costs would have been so much more in the US & I think I got better care here in Europe. I did most of my physical therapy in Spain ( with a Danish girl who is fluent in Spanish, German & English so could read my medical records in German).

It actually sounds scarier than it is. Nobody wants such things to happen, but they don't have to stop you.

Oh, here is my bloody Vienna story that had a happy ending thankfully.

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2007/1...-monday-i.html

It's also a good warning for other travelers!

TravelingMan, I realize you are asking about Italy, and I am about to write about Paris, but this may illustrate some of the issues.

My late wife became ill while we were in an apartment in Paris last December. There was, of course, no front desk or concierge, so we called SOS Médecins, a service that will send physicians to your house or apartment. While my wife, daughter, and I all speak quite a bit of French, the real challenge was medical vocabulary. The doctor who came to the apartment, the ambulance crew he called, the emergency room staff, and all the staff we dealt with in the hospital over the next five days spoke only French, save for one nurse who spoke to us in English whenever she was on duty. As fluent as we were, questions about symptoms and history, and provision of information on plans, tests, diagnosis, and prognosis were a real challenge. Lets just say we expanded our vocabulary under very stressful situations.

However, as HappyTrlvr mentions, above, the quality of care was very high, and we, too, encountered a great deal of compassion.

I should mention that there were costs: the SOS Médecins doctor was €60, the ambulance €110 (a weekend rate), and the hospital bill was €7500. My wife's supplementary insurance covered all that, although not without some back and forth.

So, the advice from others — have travel insurance, get clarity on coverage of pre-exisiting condition, carry some essential medical vocabulary (especially if you have a pre-existing condition), and know what numbers to dial — is all important. I would add: always have a bit of cash in your wallet; both the doctor who made the house call and the ambulance crew who transported us to the hospital asked for payment on the spot. (The hospital, on the other hand, showed great patience waiting for Blue Cross to settle that bill.)

Anselm

The International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers (IAMAT) is a non-profit organization. Joining is free (although they do request a donation), and members receive, among other things, a directory of English-speaking medical providers in many countries and cities who have agreed to provide services at set rates.

My mother, who had significant medical problems, traveled extensively in Europe and belonged to IAMAT for several years. She used their services in Italy and Greece on several occasions with good results.

Much more information at www.iamat.org

Assuming you are staying in a hotel they will have all the info you need - from calling thr emergency number for you to having a doctor visit your room. The MD would most likely speak at least basic English.

In a true emergency you head to whatever hospital they take you to - medical care in europe is just as good as in the US. If it's a major concern but not life-threatening you can call the US embassy or consulate and they will have a list of English-speaking MDs (although a very large number of MDs in europe will speak some at least).

I have had minor problems on a couple of trips abroad and the local pharmacy was always able to help - and someone in the pharmacy always spoke English.

Anyone with an ongoing potentially serious problem should travel with basic medical records and have the names of MDs in the places they intend to visit.

Thank you all who responded with expressions of concern. She is home, exhausted from little sleep, and strange procedures. The good news is, there is no cardiac problem; the bad news, "we don't know what caused this chest pain. BUT, if it comes back, be sure to come back (to the emergency room)". Life goes on. Fortunately.

'tis I who was in the ER overnight. I'm relirved to be home and free of heart disease. but I definitely need to spend the next few weeks getting my act together so I can deal with this thing if it recurs while we are in Italy,

We do have travel insurance, and also Kaiser coverage. So in addition to brushing up on medical terms I need to look at the insurers' material, and carry a list of mrds, etc.

A list of meds. A list of mrds sounds like something you would say in French.

Thanks for starting this very informative thread, and thanks to everybody for all the information and advice. It is really helpful and really appreciated.

The EU equivalent for 911 is 112.(police/fire/ambulance)

You should "forget" about local/national emergency numbers.

Only "112" comes with guaranteed features that may save important minutes.

As a tourist, you will probably make the emergency call with your mobile phone, and "112" will work even if
- your mobile has no coverage from your dedicated network operator but a competitor's
- your mobile is locked and you cannot remember the PIN in the heat of the moment
And it relays automatically the data of the transmitter your phone in connected to, so the emergency service already know the rough location and can send the ambulance in the right direction if you have problems to clearly identify your current location.

Especially when you plan to go to rural areas, it can also not hurt to learn basic CPR. If a person has collapsed and went into a cardiac arrest, it is mandatory that you start CPR instantanously after you called 112. Do NOT wait for professional help. Outside of major cities the response time will most probably be longer than 5 minutes (the max time until irreversible brain damage sets in).
It may sound a bit scary, but I can assure you that a short CPR training (e.g. here the Red Cross offers such courses for free) will give you a lot of confidence when you see how easy it is. Don't get the knowledge from the web or books, though, cause you will almost always underestimate how forceful you have to perform CPR.

And all the best for your wife and yourself.. and happy travels without any emergencies.

"Outside of major cities the response time will most probably be longer than 5 minutes"

Don't go panic-stirring.

A neighbour of mine in our tiny, and relatively remote, Cotswold microtown sadly lost his wife to a heart attack a few months ago. She had the attack while he was in the garden and it took some minutes before he found her.

But he rang 999 from his landline anyway. Calling the national emergency number has EXACTLY the same effect as dialling the German-inspired 112: it's simply untrue to claim otherwise. The emergency services began to talk him through how to give CPR: they'd got to about the third sentence when the First Responder, complete with the proper CPR equipment, came charging through the door (which of course wasn't locked: you only need to do that in cities).

Calling 999 here obviously displays the phone's location and subscriber name to the emergency operator. The moment there's a hint it's a heart attack, the operator presses a key which sends an alert with all the information to a designated First Responder - who, in small villages, is probably within a minute's walk and knows the local topography intimately. In this case, my neighbour estimates 2 mins max from picking up the phone to the responder starting work.

The ambulance arrived about another 5 mins later. She was probably dead when my neighbour found her: but the system will often respond far more quickly in tiny villages than in cities with traffic and parking problems - and responders can get to a casualty in a private house vital minutes more quickly than in a hotel.

Cowboy, that info is very welcome. You seem to be very well-informed about it. How do you happen to know all that?

Hi charnees..

I work in telecommunications & broadcasting.

What flanner said is true, too.
But I was talking about mobiles not landlines.
Obviously, in your home country you will know your national emergency number. You can also dance naked on the roof if that is the local customs to attract help.

But if I was stuck somewhere in Greece or Portugal, I'd not bet my or other's lives on my mental capacity in a moment of stress to remember the local Greek or Portuguese emergency number if I know that 112 works anytime anywhere.

Some features of 112 will also work with the national emergency numbers, but you are not guaranteed that this will be the case.
For example, in Germany the national emergency number for the police is 110. But in case of mobile network overload, only 112 will be given priority, i.e. other calls will be terminated automatically by the network until the cell can handle your 112 call. If your national pride made you call the good ole 110 (how silly is that, by the way) you'd get a busy signal.
Obviously, mobile networks don't overload on a regular basis and you are not always at a rural villa in Tuscany, but why even bother about different phone numbers when there is a single one that works guaranteed.