One tip that could save your life (at home or while traveling)

Mardee, thanks for the article. I have done something like what the article suggest for many years for travel but don’t have the info readily available at home. I will do that soon. Adding my blood type was something I didn’t consider but will do that too. Again, a good reminder for taking care of ourselves in an emergency.

I'll be especially sure to lock up my tiger!

Good advice in the article. Thanks.

Great idea, Mardee! Thanks for the info.

Great reminder, thanks Mardee. I always have a hard time figuring out where to keep this info. So I have it in my wallet and my money belt and on my phone - which then I have to remember to update them all. I just updated my phone, perfect timing before my next trip!

Thanks for the reminder. It only takes a few minutes to help be prepared for an emergency.

Thanks Mardee.
I have done this for solo travels for years.
I’ll now add my blood group to the list.
Here, we used to be able to get little plastic jars with a preprinted form inside to fill in with your medical and medication history, then put it in the freezer compartment of your fridge.
On the door of the fridge would be placed a bright orange magnet to let paramedics know to look in the freezer.
I got one for my Mum, but that was years ago so I don’t know if it’s still a thing.
Of course, you could make your own version.
When I travel with my friend from Scotland, we always let each other know where our travel insurance documents are in our luggage.

Thanks, all, for your comments! I do think info like this is helpful. I alway worry about that myself—having something happen while I'm out walking. I thought Apple Health was good enough, but didn't think about this at home. And I am going to laminate a small card to carry with me just in case.

This is a good reminder, thank you. I have most of my info on my phone, but need to see if it is up to date.
The last almost 2 years of my mom's life, I made little laminated cards with her name, the facility she lived at, and emergency numbers. I had those in every pocket of every jacket and purse she owned. I also used a label maker and put emergency contacts on the back of her phone, along with her name and address.

No hospital is going to go by your self professed blood type. Or what you have written down. If you need blood because they don’t have time to type and cross your blood at the hospital, they will use O negative blood.
The two most immediate points of information are past medical history and allergies. All else is secondary if an emergency.

treemoss, they might use O-neg, or they might go by what you put for your blood type, or they might do a type-and-screen, which is a quick process. But it doesn't hurt to put your blood type on your emergency info, and it could help.

Yeah, was just going to add the same. Hospitals will not use a self professed blood type, they will type the blood, they can offer plasma or O Negative until the results are in, it is a very fast test. Focus on critical medical conditions, history, and allergies, as well as contact information.

On a Samsung phone there are prompts under medical info for allergies, prescriptions, medical history, etc. There is a separate icon where you can list as many emergency contacts you want . You can make these available even while phone is locked. I just noticed tonight my phone now has a feature to share that information s to emergency services if I call for help.

I have been the staff member in the emergency room trying to find next of kin information in the wallet and phone of a person brought in by ambulance

I have been the staff member in the emergency room trying to find next of kin information in the wallet and phone of a person brought in by ambulance

doric8, so where would you search? a money belt? wallet slots? Would you know how to find the emergency info on a locked Android and iPhone?

I worry that I'll carry this stuff around and no-one will look for it. So I'm glad to know that someone does!

This was 10 years ago, I'd go thru wallet and it seems like the phones I was looking at weren't locked? I remember looking at the call history for a 70 yr old man having a heart attack and asking him if the frequently called woman was family, he told me "daughter " and I said I'm going to call her now, ok?

(I know at least twice I picked their pants off the emergency room floor without putting on gloves and got yelled at by others on the staff for not observing universal precautions)

I have a pdf with all my medical information, prescriptions, doctors, identification documents and insurance cards and a list of contacts and who to contact for what.

The pdf is in a Miscrosoft cloud account that automatically updates from a file on my laptop so keeping the file up to date is easy. My kids also have a link. There isnt anything that can be used against me on the file.

So it can be found when needed I created a QR code, had that put on a dog tag that I wear around my neck. I think i will get a phone case with a clear back and place a copy of the QR code under there as well.

I have a separate file with the sensitive data in it, like where the Will is located and where the coffee cans full of cash are burried in the lawn. Again, a QR code, but only my lawer has that.

Thanks for the info on the Android Medical app. I will see if I can set that up to link back to the QR address.

doric8, so where would you search? a money belt? wallet slots? Would you know how to find the emergency info on a locked Android and iPhone?

CWSocial, my daughter is a PA and said that medical personnel in ERs (and EMTs) are trained to look at phones, and know how to get to the health information on both iPhones and Androids.

I had to figure it out since it's changed a bit from older iPhones (previously, the Emergency button was in the lower left hand corner on the lock screen). On my phone now (an iPhone 14), you long press the power button and top left button simultaneously (like you're powering down), but below the "power off" swipe, there is a button for Medical ID that they can swipe (also one for Emergency Call).

Not only for myself. When I was a caregiver for my parents, that's what I did for them. Long before the use of apps, I just asked their PCPs for such documents. They carried paper copies in their wallets when on their own. I carried a copy when accompanying them to their healthcare providers.

When they were admitted to the hospitals, on occasion I had to correct their med lists, which were either stale or were manually entered erroneously during admission.

I still get mine from my PCP. I keep a jpg file on my phone's home screen, and a hard copy in my wallet.

Thank you for sharing this. Good info.
When I travel solo I also wear a dog tag necklace showing my "in case of emergency" contact name/number.

Thanks, Mardee, good to know!

On newer Android phones (my Samsung, anyway) I long-press the power on/off button, which displays the Medical Info and Emergency Call button (to dial emergency contacts.)

I just added a "date last updated" line to my medical record.

I once told a friend that i wear a dog tag, she winked and said, of course you do. I think she was missing the point.