Posted on 10/11/2008 10:31:22 PM PDT by Dallas59
Emergency operators are used to hearing some pretty bizarre and extraordinary pleas for help.
But Kerry Burrows could hardly believe it when she took a 999 call and was asked to send an ambulance to a pregnant woman - 5,000 miles away in Nevada, America.
A desperate father-to-be had rung to say his girlfriend was expecting twins and needed urgent help after suffering sudden pains.
Stunned Kerry, took the call in Cardiff. She said: "I was expecting him to tell me somewhere in Wales - not the other side of the Atlantic.
"The dad-to-be is British but his girlfriend is American.
"He was in the UK talking to her in Nevada via the internet. He explained his girlfriend didn't have a phone so she couldn't call 911 for the US emergency services herself.
"So he tried to sort it out for her and dialled 999 for our help. When I realised it was an emergency 5,000 miles away, I thought, 'Oh no, what do we do with this?'"
Quick-thinking Kerry, 47, rang an international operator to be put through to a hospital in Nevada - but it was treated as a hoax call.
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She and her colleagues at the Welsh Ambulance Service in Cardiff then began searching on Google for police stations in Nevada. The 999 crew eventually got hold of the New York police department, which put them in touch with the ambulance service in Nevada.
Moments later, paramedics were on their way to rescue the ailing woman, who is three months pregnant with her twins.
Yesterday she was recovering in hospital and doctors said she and the babies were "fine".
Kerry said "We love a challenge and this certainly was one.
"We are delighted the mum-to-be is now well and hope the twins will be healthy and strong.
"It's not unusual to have calls coming in from mobile phones in remote parts of the UK.
"But to have a request to help a patient over in America is definitely a first for us.
"It was a wonderful feeling to be able to help someone who was so far away."
A sweet story! Thanks!
Yeah, I once did that sort of thing, too. I called an ambulance to go to someone’s house which was 2,000 miles away, just on the basis that something was wrong with them and that they would not be able to call the ambulance themselves.
It is strange and different to try and get 911 services in a city different than your own...
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