I saw this yesterday and thought it's a great idea, figured I'd pass it along. I'm sure someone here has already thought of the idea but I haven't seen it.

On your cell phones add ICE to the front of any "in case of emergency" numbers like home or your spouse's number. If for some reason you are in an emergency and not able to repond as to whom to notify the rescue squad/EMT/police can use this as a way to reach those important numbers.

I changed my mine and my wife's cell phones yesterday and have told my kids to do the same.

The last time this was discussed there were a few who work as firefighters or ems and some are forbidden to look through a 'customers' cell phone for fear of violating privacy laws/policies so you can't count on it.

And further: EMt's can't know how to operate every different type of cell-phone

In theory a good idea. But, in the US, even if we called, we can't say more than "Someone is at the hospital" since HIPAA prevents passing patient information.

Second, on scene there's not the time to use a cell phone usually. The ER might find it useful, but I've never seen it done. I would think that "home" or one of the parents (ie, "Dad cell") would be easier called.

It couldn't hurt. That is assuming you really don't have problems with emergency or ER personnel digging around your stuff and you don't keep sensitive information, unencrypted sensitive information, on your phone. I don't so at worse it is a waste of effort and they never see it or do anything with it.

On the other hand ... If your comfortable with people seeing the contents of your phone, perhaps you encrypted the sensitive material, and things go your way it might save a lot of time. It could, conceivably, save your life.

So this is a good tip in my book.

On many phones it is possible to change the display shown when you open it to display a few lines of text. A friend has his set to tell him to "Bear Down", a popular saying in the financial circles he travels in. I see no reason why you couldn't substitute a line the showed "ICE" and an emergency number.

Of course the contact list and speed-dial lists would also be good but the person would have to dig a bit.

In the phone book on my phone I have the first entry be my wife, and then list her name and then the words " - My wife". After the last discussion, I knew EMTs weren't going to be looking through my phone, but if the phone ever gets lost, it's a lot easier for a good samaritan to give her a call to let us know where the phone is. And if an EMT does look through my phone, I figure that will help just as much.

I am a career EMT so I guess i might be qualified to reply. The theory is great but in practice just finding someone's cell is a pain. Then we rarely need to contact a family member in the first place. About the only time we do is when it is a minor and we are looking to speak with an adult for permission to treat. A better idea is for those people that have chronic problems to wear an easily identifiable medical bracelet or necklace. A point of contact can be added to that.

First time post, been a lurker for a little bit.

I am a career EMT in the great New England and active in SAR and Technical Rescue.

You know what that button on the side does, so yes it’s obvious to you. But let the phone get old and have the lettering ware off (like it has on every phone I’ve had) and it’s not going to be so obvious to someone not use to, or knows your phone.Yea it may be shaped like a heart, but before I read your post I would not have thought that’s what it was for. There is just too many models of phones made.


Also It does seem unlikely that the emergency persons would do anything with your cell phone. They are dealing with an emergency and would let the hospital deal with it. They fix you up get you to the hospital and them move on to the next life to save, no time to play with phones.

They would probably look for your wallet, better to print a contact card and carry it in your wallet (laminated to protect it) for them to use.



My younger brother is a first aid captain on the local volunteer fire department and a county sheriff (although he mostly works down in the jail on the sheriff job, they don't let him out much) I will ask him what they do on the fire department and post what he says.

I've stuck a label with '112' on the outside of my phone to remind me the UK emergency number does not work in all of Europe. 112 does (and it works in the UK).
We are so close to Europe we can pop over for a few hours shopping and plenty of people from the UK work there on occassion.
The Sock

For some of my contacts on my phone, I have put a comment in parans after the name. For example, my wife, father and mother each have a comment "(Mom)" for example. If someone can see this information on my phone, then i figure they can get to these people.

I would not expect an EMT or another first responder to be the one who made such calls.