Distress signals

[Parashel]

What is your departments distress signal? Do you use the emergency button on the radio? Do you have a phrase you relay to dispatch that initiates emergency response?? I am curious as to how other departments and agencies handle this safety issue? 

[Just Plain Ruff]

I've have numerous different codes for numerous departments

10-31 

We need help here

10-99

Emergency button

10-51

"Dispatch, send help"

Many times our dispatch has asked what we needed help for, and we've been in the uncomfortable situation to have to tell them. 

 

The best place was a small county service where we would get on the radio and say "Unit 5 dispatch, send truck 9" and they would send the calvary.  I only had to use it once but my life was in danger and the response I got was amazing.  6 local area law enforcement units and 5 others from outside counties.  The guy who I was fighting for my life had a knife and was about 1 minute away from killing me.  Had there not have been 2 deputies about 3 miles away from me, I probably would not be typing this today.  I was the sole responder to a man down call and had no reason to believe that this guy would become violent.  he was well known to us and had never been violent in the past.   I was first responding solo for the EMS system that day and I'll never do it again.  

Edited September 8, 2016 by Ruffmeister Paramedic

[rock_shoes]

10-33 or Code 33. We also have a emergency on the radios in metro areas. The policy is also that all non critical to the situation chatter stops until the situation is resolved.

[paramedicmike]

Emergency button on the radio is the local SOS.

[billdob1]

Emergency button is local protocol in my county and I've had to use it once when my patient pulled a gun and tried to put a round in me. Every cop in the district and available ems units made it to the scene in a matter of about 5 minutes. Thankfully, he missed and I wear a ballistic vest, but yeah. Emergency button. 

[medicgirl05]

This brought back a memory that made me laugh. We responded to a choking patient, no reason to question scene safety. As we were walking up the sidewalk we were circled by about 30 family members screaming and hollering. We couldn't get back to the truck, we went inside to find an obvious DOA. I was a basic at the time. My partner told me to start CPR. I later learned he feared us being separated as I went to get more equipment would have been more dangerous. We were WAY out in the county, and had just gotten radios with an emergency button. I tried to talk to dispatch, but I was unreadable because of our location. My partner hit the emergency button and we just did basic CPR as we waited, and hoped dispatch would know what it meant. Eventually officers showed up and most of the family scattered, we learned a lot of them had warrants. 

We were very thankful.

Another time, an officer radiod to dispatch that they needed a "fleet", a term the dispatcher didn't know what to do with. She sent every available resource, fire EMS and all the officers in the county. We arrived to find the officers vehicle had rolled multiple and the 2 officers were not in good shape. 

Now I rely on the emergency button, luckily I have never had to push it since that situation.