In Case of Emergency

When you have a major health condition it is a wise precaution to always carry some form of identification on you that details your condition and what to do or who to contact in case of an emergency.

There are a number of options available from just carrying the patient identification card that you should of been given assuming you received an ICD after your sudden cardiac arrest.

Some hospitals have also started to issue plastic credit card sized identification too…

These should probably be considered the minimum you should carry and should definately be on you when you travel through secure areas such as airports.

Many people also opt to wear some sort of bracelet, band or jewellery that provides further information and these are are great idea if you aren’t always with someone who knows of your condition i.e. travelling alone, sporting activities.

Things you should consider to put on your id:

Full name and address

Date of birth

Next of kin & contact details

Allergies

Cardiac condition

Medications

The fact you have an ICD, pacemaker etc

Settings and technical information of your implant/lead

Obviously the type of id you get will limit the amount of information you can provide, but some is better than none.  Whilst it may seem a little over the top to go to these lengths it’s always better to plan for the unforeseen!

Members of the group have suggested the following suppliers of these medical id’s.  Some like Medic Alert provide extra services at a premium and are worth considering if you can afford them.

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Please let us know if you have any other suggestions for our list.

If you have a smartphone you can use an In Case of Emergency (ICE) feature or app on your phone.

You can follow this guide to enable the ICE feature on most of the main smart phone types.

Android ICE Apps in the Play store

iOS Apps in the iTunes store (via find.io)

And of course there are always extreme measures to get the message across!