Emergency plan?

[MammaG]

I have been working on a general family emergency plan, both for emergencies (ie, where do we meet if we have to evacuate) and for after an emergency (ie, wills, life insurance, plans for the kids, getting our health proxies up to date).

I have been teaching my oldest son, who is 6, about calling 911 in an emergency. I have a question which I have just been kind of too afraid to ask, but that is plain silly. What would happen to my children if I were suddenly in need of transport to the hospital? I mean, if my Ds called 911, I was unconscious, and they needed to take me right now. Would they bring the kids in the ambulance? What else could they do, really? But then I'd have three kids with no carseats in an ambulance headed to a hospital with no one to care for them until DH or my mother or whoever could get there.

This is ridiculous, but this keeps me up at night! Anyone an emergency worker? What happens in this situation?

Oh, just to add that we do not have anyone nearby who I would trust to be an emergency child care option. The very nearest option would be a good half hour away. EMTs should be able to find that emergency contact info....I keep it on my kids' carseats, in the glove box and in my wallet and the back of my passport. Also posted by the phone. I just want to know what would happen to my kids until someone else could be there.

Also, just to open it up, what is in your emergency plan? It is not nice to think of, but I always feel better when I have planned for the worst as best as I can.

[TheGirls]

I have a family friend who is an EMT and I had to ask the same question. :-D  She says that kids do not ride in the ambulance, but someone will stay at the house with them until your emergency contact (or the children's other parent) arrives.  Usually when an ambulance is called the call goes out to police officers in the area, the fire station, other EMT's in the area, etc, so one of those people often ends up staying with the kids so the ambulance EMT's can work on the patient.

If they can't get in touch with a parent or close relative, and if the parent is so incapacitated that he/she can't give instructions/permission to find a caregiver, then a social worker will be called and the children will go to an emergency-placement foster home.  They would go to a parent or the parent's designated caregiver as soon as possible.   She did reassure me that this option is only used after they've tried pretty hard to get in touch with someone and only if they're reasonably sure that another parent isn't going to show up in the near future.