Medical "Emergency Contact" - how, actually, do you do it

[judyo1]

Sort of but not related.. An incident diving with my buddy and we had to set off his Garmin In Reach. His Father was his first contact and his brother the second. His father saw the USA phone number (we're in NZ) and blocked the caller without answering, thinking it was a scam. They did leave a message. His brother did answer the phone... All ended well.

 

[Nic2750]

For work I usually have to provide my employer with two separate contacts for different reasons. My next-of-kin is a close relative, and they are the contact if I'm dead. My emergency contact is the first contact in an emergency (eg. Ship is missing, I'm unconscious, anything except death).

I usually list a sane friend in the same region as an emergency contact. When I'm in Palau, I list my housemate as my emergency contact, and my father (in Australia) as next-of-kin. My housemate has my father's contact details just in case. In an emergency my housemate can deal with practical issues (informing my employer, bringing things to the hospital, etc.), whilst my father can't really do anything except worry.

 

[LI-er]

My next-of-kin is a close relative

Nobody's going to ask for next of kin unless you're admitted to a hospital.

 

[Billg68bg]

If it's dive related, I use my wife, since she doesn't dive and will likely be in the general vicinity. In circumstances/excursions including my wife, I use my son or brother, as they are the easiest to reach in an emergency situation.

 

[drohn]

Oh, thank you for all the replies! Yeah, I guess most of us choose a close family member... Which makes sense. It's like a "last line". Having said that, if I would get a call like "your brother is lost at sea", I would really have to improvise. As far as I see it, there is this "fatal scenario", incl. legal consequences (the final ones), and a, well, less fatal scenario, where someone just really needs to be informed... I have a feeling that the emergency contact should also have a list of numbers to call in case of emergency. But phew, that also has a lot of implications. Strange topic.

 

[drohn]

I acted as an emergency contact for a diver who died during a dive trip.

It was actually quite involved. I had to go to the hospital, the police station, the funeral parlor, the diveshop, the hotel, and his car rental company. I also had to contact his brother who came down two weeks later. The police conducted an investigation and searched though all of his belongings.

After talking to witnesses, I found out that he was found on the surface by the first officer of Paul Allen's yacht. I ended going aboard the yacht to collect information on what happened to him. The first officer was on one of the two yachts dinghys going to shore when he encountered a tank floating on the surface. They first thought that a tank had fallen overboard, but found the diver was just below the surface. They took him to the shore and then had the yacht's nurse come over on the yacht's second dinghy with adrenaline. They were not able to resuscitate him before the ambulance arrived. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

What was also disturbing is what happened afterwards. In the process, his waterpoof wallet with identification, credit cards, and cash that he had on his body went missing. As a result, they initially did not know who he was and I was not able to obtain his DAN card for transportation back to the US. Two weeks later, his wallet mysterious reappeared intact, but without any cash in it. He ended up being cremated on the island. Because he did not fly back alive in person, the airline refused to transport any of his effects.

Oh man, that is really intense... But thank you for sharing, I was wondering how that might look like..

 

[wetrocksrock]

The outcome of a fatal dive accident in 2023 inspired this InDepth article about this very topic - enjoy

Who You Gonna Call (in an Emergency)?

In the immediate aftermath of a diving fatality, law enforcement needs to locate an emergency contact for the accident victim. If that person’s phone is locked, social media accounts private, and there’s no emergency contacts for friends or family, it will likely fall to you as a dive buddy, to...

indepthmag.com