Importance of in Case of Emergency Numbers in Your Cell Phone

Your family is returning home from a holiday party. Snow is lightly falling as you wind your way along the dual lane highway that will take you home. A full moon lights your path. You are singing and the kids are laughing.

Headlights appear over the next hill. They swerve into your lane. You attempt to swerve out of the way but it is too late. Sound of crunching metal and breaking glass fill your ears.

Your head slams against the steering wheel. As the lights dim, you realize that your car is now upside down in the ditch. You hear the other driver’s tires squeal as he leaves the scene. You have just enough time to call 911 before you fall unconscious.

Emergency crews arrive to find a mangled pile of metal. Weather and injuries have left every member of your family unconscious. Firefighters find your cell phone lying beside you. Checking through the contacts, they find an entry that is marked “ICE”. Emergency workers use this number to contact your family and get a pertinent medical history.

This is one example of the many tragic situations ICE has helped to alleviate. Getting a pertinent medical history can be very crucial during an emergency. It helps firefighters, ambulance and hospital staff quickly learns about allergies and medications. Such information can alleviate potential drug interactions and allergic reactions. Without this information, medication may be administered that either interacts with your current medication or causes an allergic reaction.

ICE is as critical to taking care of your family as life or health insurance. Before ICE, cell phone entries such as “Mom,” “Dad,” or “Home” was often looked for. However, these may be for people or places one hundred or even one thousand miles away. Other, than worrying your family these calls may not yield any useful information. ICE provides a reliable point of contact for emergency workers.

Many people still believe that emergencies will never happen to them. No one wants an emergency to happen. Yet, every day we take steps to safeguard our families against them. We buy car insurance in the event that we have an accident, health insurance in case we get ill and life insurance in case we meet an untimely end. ICE is just another one of these safeguards. I hope that you will never find yourself or a family member in such a situation. However, if you should it can be an invaluable tool.