Calling 15 or 112

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Scene 1 · Opening

22.10. You are bringing the bins back up. The door of the neighbour above you is ajar, and his lamp is on.

You call his name. Nobody answers. You push the door.

Scene 2 · Before you phone

He is lying on the rug, between the coffee table and the sofa. Nothing is knocked over, nothing is smoking, there is no danger in the room.

Your phone is already in your hand.

What do you do first?

• Right move : I kneel down, I speak to him loudly, and I look at whether his chest is rising.
  Look, then call : Ten seconds is enough: you check that the chest rises, you listen, you put your cheek near his mouth. Now you know what you are going to tell the dispatcher.
• Mistake : I call straight away, I will look while it is ringing.
  The dispatcher is about to ask you three questions, and you will have no answers : How the casualty is forms part of the alert, not of what comes after. Go closer, speak to him, watch his breathing: it takes ten seconds and it changes everything you will be able to say.
• Mistake : I shake him by the shoulders and sit him up against the sofa.
  Sitting up, his head drops and his tongue blocks his throat : In an unconscious person the muscles go slack: the tongue falls to the back of the throat. The guidance says the opposite of what you have just done: you tilt the head back and lift the chin.

Scene 3 · Three digits

He is breathing. He is not answering. You have the two things that count. You do not know what happened to him in this room, so you leave him on his back and you watch his chest.

What do you dial?

• Right move : 15.
  15, 18 or 112: all three reach the right place : In France, 15 puts you straight through to the Samu for your département. 18 is the fire and rescue service, to be dialled the moment a life is in danger. 112 is the emergency number for the whole European Union. None of the three is a mistake.
• Mistake : 17, this is an emergency.
  17 is the police : It deals with public order and offences, not with medical crews. You will be transferred, and it will cost time to somebody who has none. For a person on the floor: 15, 18 or 112.
• Mistake : I look for the surgery's number in my contacts.
  You are scrolling through your phone while he lies on the floor : A surgery at night is an answering machine. There are only two or three digits to dial, and they go straight to the Samu for your département, to the fire and rescue service, or to the emergency services of the whole European Union.

Scene 4 · The dispatcher picks up

The dispatcher : “Samu, go ahead.”

Timer: 30 seconds.

What do you say first?

• Right move : “14 rue des Cordeliers in Nevers, third floor, left-hand door, the entryphone says Bonnet. A man unconscious and breathing.”
  The address first, always : The street, the number, the floor, the name on the entryphone. The dispatcher can send a crew before he has even heard the rest. Without the place, nothing moves.
• Mistake : “Come quickly, my neighbour is on the floor, he will not wake up, I do not know what to do!”
  The dispatcher can send nothing: he does not know where : The precise location of the incident comes before everything else. The street, the number, the floor, the door, the entry code if there is one. Worry does not get an ambulance moving.
• Not the best choice : “Good evening, I am calling because I am not sure it is worth calling you.”
  “That part is our decision” : “You give me an address and tell me what you can see. Sorting it out is my job. Let us start again: where are you?”

Scene 5 · What you can see

The dispatcher : “Got it, 14 rue des Cordeliers, third floor left. Describe what you can see.”

You answer:

• Right move : “A man in his sixties, lying on his back. He does not answer when I speak to him. His chest is rising. He is alone and I am alone with him.”
  You describe, you do not interpret : What has happened, how many people, how each of them is, what you have already done. Four factual pieces of information, in that order. What is wrong with him is not your question tonight.
• Mistake : “I think he is having a stroke, he has high blood pressure and he lives on his own.”
  You have just handed him a conclusion instead of facts : A wrong guess sends the dispatcher down a wrong track. Say what your eyes can see: he answers or he does not, he breathes or he does not, he moves or he does not. Working it out belongs to the doctor on the line.
• Mistake : “I will leave you now, I am going to look after him.”
  You have hung up on the Samu : You do not hang up before the person on the line asks you to. The doctor may need more information, and he can talk you through what to do while the crew is on its way.

Scene 6 · The instructions

The dispatcher : “A crew is on its way, you will see them arrive. Go and unlock the main door of the building.”

The dispatcher : “Then come back next to him and stay on the line with me. Tell me straight away if his breathing changes.”

What do you do?

• Right move : I open the door downstairs, I come back up to him, and I keep the phone against my ear.
  You follow the instructions and you do not leave the line : Pass on what you know, answer the questions, do what you are told: that is exactly what is expected of a bystander. And keep watching that his breathing stays normal until the crew arrives.
• Mistake : I hang up to call his daughter, she lives nearby.
  Telling the family is not your job tonight : You do not hang up before the dispatcher asks you to. His daughter will learn everything within the hour. He needs someone in the room, now.
• Mistake : I put the phone down on the table and go and find his ID papers.
  The dispatcher is talking to an empty room : You are his eyes in that room: when you walk away, he goes blind. The crew will find out his name. His breathing is what somebody needs to be watching, right now.

Scene 7 · The crew

Blue light comes through the window and turns across the ceiling. Two sirens stop downstairs, a few seconds apart.

Three people come up with a bag and a carry chair. Someone asks you how long he has been like this, and you give an exact time, because you looked at your watch.

You performed no technical skill tonight. You gave the right alert, to the right place, and you stayed.