The Importance of ICE - Unfortunately First Hand Experience

On February 18, 2014 my nephew Jason Nicholas Mastroianni just didn't wake up. Jason was only 24 years old. Who would have thought that someone so young could just die in his sleep?

Jason's roommates found  him and did everything they were supposed to do. Unfortunately no one knew how to contact my brother, sister-in-law or Jason's brother. Eventually someone figured out how to get in touch with his girlfriend. She didn't know how to reach my brother either. Eventually she remembered she knew someone who knew something about the family. Finally at 5:00 pm my brother and sister-in-law were told by a detective that their son was dead. My heart aches for Rick, Laura and Andrew. To lose a child or brother so suddenly and at such a young age is tragic. The fact that it was so many hours before they found out is heart wrenching.

Everyone's first reaction is, why didn't they just look in his phone? Most of us have our phones password protected so if we lose it no one can access our information. That is probably why no one could get that information from his phone. Here is where ICE (In  Case of Emergency) comes into play. 

I know that emails have circulated about this off and on for awhile. It is really important that you have the people you want to have contacted in an emergency listed that way in your phone. Newer phones have an Emergency Dialing feature so that even if your phone is locked, an early responder can reach those people. I have had my phone set up this way for a year or so; I found the feature on my phone as I was editing contacts when I got a new one. Since we were traveling so much I wanted to make sure that if something happened to one or both of us, our family would be notified.

I'm sure every phone is slightly different but the principle is the same. On my Android phone as you scroll down the contact information there is a heading that says "Groups." This is where you can put friends, family, co-workers, etc. There is also ICE, emergency contacts, listed. My phone will allow me to make 4 people my ICE contacts. I have my husband and all three of our daughters listed here.

If you have an iPhone here's a link to one way to set it up http://rnn10.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/how-to-set-up-an-ice-contact-on-your-iphone/. My youngest daughter, Renee (the one on the left in the photo above) is my techie. She found a way to put important things like allergies to medications in there too. She is pregnant and I had her put that along with her due date in her iPhone.

If neither of these suggestions work for your phone, just Google "In Case of Emergency and your particular phone" and I'm sure you'll find instructions online. I tested it with a couple different types of phones and something always popped up.

When you're a "grown up" you think about it being important for people to be able to reach you in the event of an emergency. When you're a teenager, 20 or even 30 something, you still think you're invincible and that you are going to live until you're "old." Thankfully most of them do. But as is the case in my family right now, that doesn't always happen. 

So please take just a couple minutes to program your ICE contacts into your phone. I urge you to encourage your spouse, children and grandchildren to do the same. Since things like this travel over the Internet and we never know what to believe, feel free to send a link to this blog post to your loved ones so they can see some of the faces of those affected by this first hand. I hope that personalizing it will make people see that it isn't just a random concept floating around online. It is real and it is important.

Cherish your family and friends. Give extra hugs and I love yous. We never know when a loved one will be taken from us.

Carol