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Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · Emergency Calls

What's your emergency?

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

phraseCommon term

In emergency medicine & first aid, What's your emergency? means: A standard opening question asked by emergency call handlers, especially in North America, to find out quickly what kind of help the caller needs.

In Turkish: Acil durumunuz nedir?, Ne oldu, nasıl yardımcı olabilirim?

How it is used

Familiar from 911 calls in the US. In the UK the operator first asks 'Emergency, which service?' and then connects the caller to the ambulance, police or fire service, where the call handler asks for the address. A useful reply is short: what happened, where, and how many people are hurt.

Example sentences

  1. '911, what's your emergency?' 'My neighbor fell off a ladder and isn't moving.'

  2. The call handler asked 'What's your emergency?' and the caller just kept shouting the address.

Common collocations

  • 911, what's your emergency?
  • Emergency, which service?
  • Where is the emergency?
  • emergency callA phone call to an emergency number, such as 112, 911 or 999, to ask for an ambulance, the police or the fire service.
  • dispatcherA person in an emergency call centre who answers calls, decides what help is needed and sends ambulances or other services.
  • stay on the lineA request to a caller not to hang up, so that the call handler can ask more questions or give instructions until help arrives.

More terms: Emergency Calls

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.