Gone, but not forgotten...

North West Ambulance Service call takers were rather perplexed at how to manage an incident reported on 999 yesterday. A lady in Manchester had contacted a Facebook contact in France and discovered he had taken on overdose and was clearly beginning to succumb to its effects. She did not know his precise address, only the general location. The Skype number of course could have been from any location.

Dr Vic Calland, working as Senior Clinical Advisor in control, remembered that Hélène Vantours, who had worked at BASICS HQ, had contacts with SAMU through her mother. The call was passed to the appropriate SAMU unit through her, but the ambulance crew initially were unable to locate someone of that name in the area. Talking to the Manchester contact however revealed that she had been shown the house where he lived on Google Streetview. She took Dr Calland by telephone on a virtual walk through the village and identified the house. Armed with the number of the local SAMU unit handling the incident the location was passed to the ambulance crew, who had also been making further enquiries and had made similar conclusions as to his location. They were then able to provide further management to the man.

Dr Calland said, "We are all very grateful to Hélène and her family for their help in saving this man's life"