In case of emergency.

The other day, I received one of those “forward to all your friends” e-mail messages from a friend. Although I usually wind up deleting most of them, this one was worth sharing. It contained information about the “ICE: In Case of Emergency” program.

Here’s the message:

We all carry our mobile phones with hundreds of names/ numbers stored in its memory but who, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our near and dear ones?

If we are involved in an accident or have a heart attack and the people attending us get hold of our mobile phone, they won’t know which number to call to inform our family members.  Yes, there are many numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?

For this reason, we must have one or more telephone numbers stored under the name ICE (In case of Emergency) in our mobile phones.

Recently, the concept of “ICE” is catching up quickly.  It is simple, an important method of contact during emergency situations.

As cell phones are carried by majority of the population, just store the number of a contact person or person who should be contacted at during emergency as ICE (meaning In Case of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn’t know which number to call.

He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose.

Following a disaster in London , the East Anglican Ambulance Service has launched a national “In case of Emergency (ICE)” campaign.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would then be able to quickly contact your next of kin, by simply dialing the number stored as “ICE”.

Please forward this.  It won’t take too many “forwards” before every body will know about this.

It really could save your life, or put a loved one’s mind at rest.

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Let’s spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our mobile phones today!  Please forward to your all nearest and dearest.

The ICE program does indeed exist and it seems like a pretty good idea. If you want to learn more, check out the ICE entry on Wikipedia.