She Called an Ambulance for a Bleeding Leg. She Failed to Mention It Was a Dog’s Leg…

Sunday afternoon, Szpakowa Street in Legnica. A resident of the street calls an ambulance for an injury to a lower limb that was allegedly bleeding. When the paramedics arrive, it turns out that the injured party is... the woman’s four-legged pet.

As Szymon Czyżewski, spokesperson for the Emergency Medical Service in Legnica, reports, calls of this kind are by no means rare. Very often, the call does not come from the injured person, but from third parties.

What is more, paramedics—whose job is to help people who urgently need assistance at that very moment—are called to injuries sustained several days or even several weeks earlier. Indeed, some people call an ambulance for chronic illnesses they developed several years ago.

There is a famous story of a man who reported that he had been “ironed with an iron.” And indeed, the injured man had burn marks on his body from the implement in question, but he had suffered them during a drinking binge more than a day earlier. He called the emergency service only after he had sobered up and the pain began.

What is frightening is that around 50 percent of calls to the 999 emergency number are informational, malicious or outright false. People call seeking teleconsultations, asking about pharmacy opening hours, or where to go with a tick or where to have stitches removed.

Some do it out of pure malice, and persistently at that. The same person may call several or a dozen times within an hour. Some “malcontents” can keep calling all night. It is worth recalling the woman from Dzierżoniów who, using several SIM cards registered to different people, deliberately and successfully blocked the emergency line.

There was even a case in which some “pranksters” decided to call an ambulance during a party just to... see how quickly it would arrive.

Why is this so outrageous? Because all of this means that, because of such idiots, people who genuinely need immediate help may not receive it. The resident of Szpakowa Street could face a fine of up to PLN 5,000 for making an unjustified emergency medical service call.