ICEcare

You have probably heard about creating an ICE entry on your mobile phone to help you in case of an emergency. They say that you should store “ICE” entry in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted “In Case of Emergency”. For more than one entry, create “ICE1″, “ICE2″, and so on. This sounds convincing … but its value is severely limited (presuming that the goal is to recover from that situation).

Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s) have only one goal: Help save the victim. They are almost always stressed for time as during an emergency, every second counts. While they focus on helping the victim, they do not have time or any justifiable reason to call the ICE contact. Informing next of kin is managed by Police as a secondary task.

Paramedics and EMT’s may not call your ICE contact but if you have a tag identifier with account name and phone number associated with a professional information service, like MedicAlert™, then they are more likely to make that call. The professional information service is designed to handle emergency calls. They provide quick access to critical information with their dedicated phone lines to handle emergency calls any time: 24 x 7 x 365. They can also provide information that can help Paramedics and EMT’s in saving your life.

For the paramedics, calling an ICE contact has few severe drawbacks, like:

• Your ICE contact may not be accessible at that time when you are in an emergency
• Your ICE contact may not be able to provide details required by paramedics to save your life
• Your ICE contact may get shocked hearing the news about your emergency and may need help

Usually, your ICE contact would be someone who is very close to you — one you talk to frequently. In case of an emergency, they will have questions like what, how and where did this happen, and much more regarding the current status. They may or may not be able to focus on what they could do to help the situation. They may not realize and ignore that call if they are occupied at that time. They may return the call at a later time, but that may be too late for the paramedics who struggle for each and every second trying to save your life.

Having an ICE contact reference on your phone could help authorities. They check victims wallet and cell phone, typically looking through call history to connect with next of kin. Having an ICE contact on your mobile phone would help them connect back once paramedics have attended to you. For terminal cases, most officials in United States visit in person to convey the news.

Setting right expectation helps. Having quick access to critical information can help paramedics and EMT’s provide you with informed care, which can greatly expedite full recovery with minimal side effects. Having an ICE entry on your mobile phone address book will not help paramedics in saving your life, but will help authorities in connecting back with your next of kin, at a later time.

Chirag Patel Chirag is the visionary who created ICEcare, a mobile emergency preparedness solution. Be prepared and be safe – for yourself and all in your world. Go: http://ICEcare.net