"ICE" Your Cell Phone!

No I’m not talking about bling, although I do appreciate a little bit of sparkle!

ICE stands for ‘In Case of Emergency’ and is a simple and easy way for emergency responders and healthcare workers to contact the right people in case of, well, an emergency situation.

Wallets typically carry one’s license which can help emergency workers identify them and learn about any life-threatening conditions (for example, my photo caption says ‘Insulin Dep’ so they would know I have diabetes). However, my wallet isn’t always on my person and can be buried in my purse and difficult to locate. Cell phones, on the other hand, are almost an extension of some individuals and can be easier to find sometimes.  

When I was in grade school my emergency contacts were always my parents but now I live in a different city than them so if someone was to search for “mom” or “dad” it would really be a waste of time. Additionally, some people may list their parents by name instead of title which wouldn’t really help either. Emergency workers are trained to look for the codeword ICE in your contact list first so they can reach the right person.

So let’s take a minute to pick up our cell phones and create a new contact or edit an existing one. Add ICE in front of your emergency contact’s name. If you have multiple contacts list them as ICE 1, ICE 2, etc. and rank them in order of who would be the most useful. Listing additional people is helpful in case the first person does not answer their phone.

The cool part is if you aren’t carrying identification your contact can see that your phone is calling and alert the emergency worker. 

So help them help you and ICE your phone today!