I had need of the Emergency Services a few years ago; it was a serious situation, but it also had its funny side, and I would like to relate it to you.

 I was in the kitchen, making soup; I always make my soup from scratch, and keep my stock in the freezer, ready for when I need it.  That day I hadn’t got it out early enough to defrost, so to hurry things along, I got a rather large knife, and holding it like a dagger, I merrily kept digging it into the frozen stock to break it up; on one of the digs, I missed the container and the knife went right through my left index finger, slicing half way round it. 

 “Quick – call the Ambulance, I’ve almost sliced my finger off”, I screamed to my husband.  At the same time I was fumbling in the kitchen drawer for tea towel to wrap around my finger which was now bleeding profusely.
My husband is an asthmatic and he is one of those people who cannot stand the sight of blood in any shape or form, so when he saw all the blood on the kitchen floor, his face drained.  I thought he was going to pass out, but by some strange fluke, he managed not to, and grabbed the phone.  
Now let me say here that we have lived in the UK, America and currently live in Australia, so he had a problem remembering the correct number to call.  The first one he tried was 911, then he tried 999 (UK), and I had to remind him that we live in Australia now, and he should be calling Triple Zero (000)!  By this stage, he was also having an asthma attack and couldn’t get his words out clearly to the operator – talk about panicking!  Me on the other hand – I was as cool as a cucumber, so I ended up talking to the operator myself!

Whilst waiting for the Paramedics, I started mopping up the blood on the kitchen floor (fortunately, it’s a tiled floor) with a towel under one foot whilst holding my left arm up high, with two tea towels wrapped round my bleeding finger.  We have two dogs and I didn’t want to leave all that blood on the floor for them to clean up whilst we were at the hospital!  I was completely calm whilst my husband was falling to pieces!

When the Ambulance came, we were standing at the front door ready to go, but when the Paramedics approached us, they went straight to my husband, because by this time he was drained of all color and still having an asthma attack; I must admit, he didn’t look good.  They thought he was the patient!  I said “Excuse me – I’m the patient”, but they had to tend to him before they even looked at my heavily wrapped up (and by now, throbbing) finger!  They took me to hospital and told him not to follow in our car until the asthma attack was completely over.

I sat in the Emergency Room for 3 hours before anyone looked at my finger then they sent me for an x-ray.  That was when my husband finally arrived!  His breathing was still a bit erratic, but he was calmer than he had been.  However, as soon as the doctor started to stitch my finger, he had to leave the room, it was making him nauseous!  In all, we were at the hospital almost 6 hours – all that time for a cut finger.

As we drove home, we were laughing about the whole incident – and I guess the Paramedics had a good laugh on us.   If we are ever in need of Emergency Services again, I think I should tell my husband to keep out of the way, and I will call them myself!   What do you think?