hence the reasons some licenced premises take it to extremes and seriously ill or injured punters are harmed further by being 'assisted to leave the premises' ...

this is where the likes of the various night time economy projects can come in useful as the person can be checked out by the volunteers / 'first aiders' (although most schemes use advanced first aiders / ambulance crew/ health professionals) and attribution of the calls comes down to that project not the licenced premises ( or it's a running call if the scheme if properly integrated with ambulance service dispatch systems)...

the AA /RAC have one of the best ways of dealing with the 'what is the postcode' question

to the answer don't know their next question is ' what is the name of the road you are on ? what is the name of the road that joins at the the last / next junction ? '

if you don't know an area how the f**k are you meant to know where 'Smith's park' is ? where two street names for the entrance to the park allow you to find it on sat nav or an AtoZ far easier

I've had to use 999 quite a few times through work.

Most recently was driving home from work at 3am, had to report a guy attempting to make a snow angel. Only it wasn't snowing and he was lying in the middle of a dual carriageway.

I have called 999 a few times, most recent time was when nieghbours garden was on fire. Fire brigade arrived within 8 minutes and I was very grateful to see them. In those 8 mins the fire had gone from what appeared to be a bonfire to a conflagration which had set fire to the fence, by hsead and his numerous bushes etc, and the flames were 4oo0 ft high.

As regards post codes a friend passed out on the station platform the other morning as the train oulled in. Guard calls 999 as they do, but decided as he was in the hands off the station staff and had come to we could carry on. The story was updated the next day, when he revealed that it had taken over an hour for the paramedic to arrive, and she had had to stop on route to ask for directions as she didnt know the way, Imagine the surprise to find a vehicle with lights and sirens going stopping asking you the way! Then the guard told us that she had had a call from the ambulance service 45 minutes after she called them asking where Crowborough station was she replied "I dont know,, my train is now at East Criydon, and I go where the train takes me, it coukd be anywhere in the south!"

Can't find that on YouTube, but I recall it was a very interesting bit of film indeed. This is a similar sort of clip from Bondi Rescue that shows a drowned person basically brought back to life from start to finish, shows just how dramatic the results from an AED can be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICODRFoWZkw

I had to call 999 a few weeks back. I was experiencing excrutiating chest pain, was very scary indeed especially as i was home alone.

Turns out I was having a heart attack.

I'm 23.

Had to call 999 four times although admittedly the first one was made on my behalf...

1) I had an anaphylactic shock while camping when I was 15, it was an extreme hayfever allergic reaction. Was laying in bed and started to feel as though someone was pressing on my throat - hard. My Dad told me to stop being silly and go to sleep, my Mum remembered her first aid training

2) Ironically, while camping again we thought my cousin was having a heart attack. Horrible, horrible experience.

3) Had to call an ambulance for my sister, won't go into the details why.

4) Last summer we had a 'diary call' from a police officer regarding anti-social neighbour issues that had been ongoing for years. It's a long story but basically the neighbours came back from the pub and preceded to attack the police officer, then break into our home and attack us. Seeing my Dad being strangled by two men is an image that still haunts me, and the feeling of being utterly powerless to help him affected me badly. At this point, we had already called 999 because the police officer was being attacked and the officer in question had also pressed his own 'panic button' so the full blues and twos along with the police helicopter were deployed.

This wasn't some sink estate either, it was a very respectable area that had been taken over by 4 alcoholic families and our crime was to not participate and want to be left alone in peace. We were told by one of the families who later went on to follow the crowd that there was a lot of jealousy too.

Not feeling safe in your own home is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. The night of the attack I said goodbye to all my family members and pets believing full well that we would be killed in some sort of retribution attack during the night. It was actually surreal to wake up alive and well.

Suffice to say the house was sold and we're now moving to another part of the country for a fresh start.

Edit: not quite sure how my phone managed to double post 4 hours apart?!?!

One I can remember was when I was driving down a single track lane at about midnight and came across a young girl who'd crashed her Ka into a ditch and hit a tree on her way down and was unconscious, I called 999, the fire brigade had to cut her roof of to get her out then she went straight to hospital with the blues on.
Being midnight in mid winter it was a good job I was driving down the deserted road or it could have been a lot worse!

More times than I realised, thinking back

1) Aged 14, chimney fire in our house. Divvies put the hose down the wrong chimney the first time Quite a rural area and half the blokes were on the rugby team my dad coached, so it all got sorted out.

2) 17, on holiday in San Francisco, called 911 after seeing an intersection collision from my hotel window.

3) Aged 18, drunk bloke staggering along the dual carriageway from the A34 south Oxford roundabout toward town (past Raleigh). All over the shop.

4) Also aged 18, Mum passed out and collapsed. Turned out it was the stress of something I didn't know about until ...

5) Aged 19, phoned to dob my dad in for drink driving after he stormed off after a pissed argument. Mum interrupted me mid call to correct his probable destination from the hotel in the nearest village to a woman's house in the opposite direction - he had been having an affair. Separation happened swiftly thereafter (and ultimately divorce after all the legal shenanigans)

6) Couple of fights in Reading during my 20s. Witness of, not participant in

7) Returning from the pub in my early 20s, came around the corner of our country road to find an Escort on its roof. Turned out to be an ex school friend. No one seriously hurt, just very shaken up, but the car was between two blind corners so really needed to be shifted sharpish. It was about 200 yards to my house and I stupidly started running there instead of the nearest house - realised soon enough and made for the farm next door instead.

8) Got mugged in Reading in my late 20s. Knife brandished but not actually harmed. Gave him my wallet and phone and legged it. Then found a payphone. Never did hear anything about any resolution though.

9) Similar to one above, I saw a bloke kneeling at a shop door with bolt cutters, with another guy standing behind him, apparently shielding him from view. Early summer evening, so still light, plenty of folk about (one of the shops on the Broad St Mall for those who know Reading - between Argos and what was Virgin/Zavvi). I carried on around the corner, made the call, and loitered. 2 cars and a wagon turned up within 5 minutes and nicked them.

10) Couple of fights in Edinburgh in my 30s. Again, witness of.

11) Skip fire in Edinburgh

I can't remember all the conversations, obviously, but I certainly don't recall ever considering any of them anything other than what I expected, ie quick, concise calls and decent responses.

The weirdest Emergency Services call I had was actually the other way around. I got a call at work about 7 years ago that started "Hello Mr Butler, this is DC X from the Murder Squad"

Turned out someone had cloned the plate of my S2000 and used a stolen one to case a joint before doing someone over.