What Happens To Your Pet If You Are Rushed To The Hospital And Live Alone?

It is not a stupid question, and probably one that many of us worry about when we live alone. When I was in Idaho (before I met Bobby), I lived alone in the woods in a little trailer house. I had dogs, my horse, and the milk goat, plus some rabbits and my llama.
I worried that if I fell in the deep snow in the winter and froze to death with a broken leg, what would happen to my animals. The little dogs always went along with me when I was outside working in the snow, and they would have all frozen to death along with me.
In town, I think that they might call animal control to come and get your dog or cat if you had to be taken to the hospital; but otherwise no one would even know to come and get them.
If you can talk to one of your neighbors about taking care of Pickles until your family can get there and take him, that would maybe be the best thing.
If he can be left either inside or out in a fenced yard until your daughter can get there, he would probably feel better than if someone just took him to their house; but even that would be better than the animal control hauling him off and putting him in a cage.
It is a worrisome things at any time, and even more so for us now that we are older. Maybe @Ken Anderson has some good suggestions, since he was a paramedic, and had to deal with those kinds of situations at times.

 

I can't speak for what everyone would do but what they might do would depend in part on the amount of time they have. In a life-threatening emergency, the paramedics are going to be concentrating on the patient. They would certainly lock up the house and would make every effort to keep pets from escaping. Of course, if a cat rushed by someone in the doorway, as cats are apt to do, we wouldn't drop everything and chase it. As any pet owner might be able to appreciate, that would be more likely to make matters worse. As a paramedic, I've even fed cats or dogs before leaving the house, and made sure they had water.

Speaking for myself, and I don't think I was all that much more conscientious than most medics would be, even in a dire emergency, I wouldn't ignore the pets altogether. I'd try to make sure they were all kept indoors and, although I probably wouldn't have time to arrange for it myself, I would instruct dispatch to contact the nearest relative. If a cat got out, as did happen at least once that I remember, they would be told about that. Unless the neighbor were someone that my patient was comfortable with, I wouldn't leave the house in the hands of a neighbor because not all neighbors are neighborly or trustworthy, and I wouldn't want to take that responsibility.

I don't know how many places this might be true but, in my experience, the police would often respond to our emergencies as well. Since we would be responding from our station, in most cases, and there might be a police officer closer to the residence, they would often get there before us, and most cops have some emergency medical service training, and some are even paramedics. In such cases, we'd leave securing the house to the police, who could stay behind until a relative or friend arrived, or at least make sure the doors were locked.

It's a good idea for people to have a plan, however, since your plans are probably better than ours. If you ask us to contact a specific person, whether it be a friend, neighbor, or family member, we will do that, or the police will, or our dispatcher will.

I understand that paramedics who are working in some of the nation's largest cities may not be so accommodating, as they may literally spend their entire shift moving from one patient to another, and may already be pressured to get to their next call before they've left your house with you. Plus, in the larger cities, they are probably only minutes from the nearest hospital so they are not going to spend as much time with you.

I've worked in very small towns where I knew many of my patients personally, and in larger cities, but I have never worked in a city the size of New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago.

When I worked in Los Fresnos, Texas, our transport times would be as much as forty minutes or more, so we'd have time to learn about your concerns, and you might have time to think of them before we arrived at the hospital. But when I worked in McAllen, most of our transports were only a few minutes away.

 

This is another reason why it is good to have the ICE (in case of emergency) numbers programmed into our phones. One never knows when an automobile accident could occur, or even a medical emergency when we are not at home; but we usually always would have our cell phones with us.
Even though it would take a while for relatives to get to us, and even if we are unable to talk or use the phone, at least emergency people can look on the phone and see who they should notify.
I don't know how everyone else does it; but I just put the person's name, and then ICE afterwards.

I have heard about an alarm that calls for help if you fall on the floor and do not get back up. It apparently has sensors that tell when you fall; so even if you passed out and fell, this kind of an alarm would call for help for you. I don't know how they would get in though, and might have to break in through the door.

 

Upon having a conversation with Bobby about this situation, Chrissy; we came up with this solution for you.
Call the alarm company, and while they are on the phone, tell them you want to push the button to test it. Also ask them if changing the battery will set off the alarm, and then go and buy yourself a NEW battery because if that one has been in there so long you think it might be dead; then it probably is nearly dead even if it is working right now.

The way I put the ICE info in was just went to contacts in my iPhone and updated the information to add the "ICE" after the name.
So, instead of just having Robin's name, it has the name and then (ICE) afterwards.

 

Generally, the medics won't be checking your cell phone but the police will if there's any question about contacts. One thing that medics will check for, particularly if there is any trouble communicating with the patient, is a Vial of Life. Originally, the vial of life program involved an actual vial, into which emergency health information (EKG, living will, DRN orders, photo, list of medications, major illnesses or health concerns, contacts) were placed, and then the vial itself would be placed toward the front, on the right side of the freezer compartment of your refrigerator, where it can be easily found without digging through frozen food packages, so I am sure that medics will still look for the actual vial, if that is what you are using. Now, it looks like they are suggesting that this information be placed in a baggie and secured, by tape or a magnet, to the front outside door of your refrigerator, with a decal on the refrigerator door as well as on your front door. I don't know but they probably made the change because the vials would sometimes become encased in ice and be difficult to retrieve.