One of the neatest things i've ever seen as an EMT had to be the Vial of Life. Some variations are out there, but here's the jist. On an accident scene, I removed a car seat with an infant onboard, to find attached to the back and colored blaze orange, a plastic tube with some paper. On this laminated sheet, it gave the baby's name, blood type, doctor's name and emergency number. but MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, drug allergies. Same with the parents, had pictures of them, their numbers, home and cell, their next of kin, their doctors name and numbers, their blood types the list of information goes on and on. That was probably the smartest thing they could've ever done, since dad wasn't in the car and mom was out cold and also riding in a seperate ambulance. All turned out with only minor injuries, but still to an emergency responder coming upon a lone child in a car seat, BELIEVE ME this is a time saver, when time is already short. Since what vial isn't made up here anymore, were going to find something to substitute. If you haven't done this or haven't heard of this, take a visit down to the local FD and ask around, they may be able to set you up with something similar. If they don't have it, MAKE IT!

An excellent idea.

Wow. Amazingly good idea. Sometimes parents don't like to imagine these contingencies, and are therefore hesitant to plan. With carseats, it seems pretty clear where to put the vial, but how about older kids that are in booster seats?

a sticker under the booster seat?<br><br>uncle sutts this is such a good idea! i didn't think about this but i guess i'll do it now...<br><br>You can easily make a sticker now with any program like photoshop, even Paint or Word! Is just a picture and letters... go to office max, print it as a sticker... stick it behind the car seat or booster seat... you never know if you'll need it!<br><br>By the way I saw a dude on tv... he's diabetic and he had a tattoo on his arm with his blood type, his name and other info I cant remember... impressive. (please dont do that one to the kids, haha!)<br><br>PS: I found a site called vialoflife.com<br>in this pdf file you'll find a form that you can print and put it on a pill case and attach it to the car seat... <br><br>and check out this site. They sell this KIDS DOG TAGS that you can hang on the childs clothes, book bags or wherever... very nice idea!<br>

I've seen a variation of this on a stroller, was made out of a large luggang tag, once you're not comitted to a sticker or something like that, the possibilities are endless. Say you know, if Dadlabs would love some good P.R., maybe this is something a sponsor would be happy to aid in the design of/distribute for you guys? Everybody wins and the kids get safer.......hmmmmmm. Maybe even coincide these with a police department fingerprinting? Turns out my personal physician is going to be our pediatrician, i'm going to give him a ring and see just what he would want to see from an MD's point of view.<br><br>Bri-

Brilliant! No one likes to think about these things, but this is perfect for the scorpiotic neurosis sufferers like myself. Thanks! I'm thinking this might be a cool gift to all the kids at daycare too...

That's an excellent idea. Thanks for sharing that. My wife has taken up photography as a hobby, and she tinkers with photoshop a lot, plus she's just really crafty anyway, and I bet she could come up with something. Thanks again.

Wow....you trigerred a really old synapse in my brain. I remember my parents using an information vial like this when I was a kid, but I had not thought about this in probably 25 years. Good stuff!

My problem is that I htink about all of the contingencies and get paralyzed into doing nothing about any of them. This is a great idea that I will get working on this afternoon! Thanks.

Sheesh! You just reminded me of something I've been intending to check into and had forgotten - local PD fingerprinting of our new kiddo. Thanks Uncle Sutts!

I got to witness this today and it brought my mind right back to this post. I'm a pharmacist at a hospital and there was a car accident. The couple had the same kind of list in a bright colored folder on the back of the baby's seat. Instead of myself and the doctors trying to gather information from the couple to determine what medications we could and could not give them and everything else, we had it all in hand which saved so much time. Since I've experienced it personally, I told my wife today that this is definitely something I want to do.

Uncle Sutts, I don't know the search route of an EMT so can you suggest other places you could stash these tags. Do EMTs search glove boxes or sun visors? Besides attaching then to the seats in plain sight I'm curious as to other places you could attach these tags so that kids or dogs don't have access to them. I thought a keychain vial could work but again I don't know if the EMTs would be looking at the ignition of a car during an emergency.

Well, this is where it gets kinda tricky. Out in the world you have mechanics all over the place, most of the are ASE certified, some aren't. Of all those mechanics that are certified, how many really know what they're doing? Probably about 45-60 percent varying with the shop. The same goes with EMT's and the town you live in, county, state etc. Protocols are set up and are supposed to be followed, but from what i've seen, rarely often are. Point being to this whole schpeel is that if your FD does or supports something like this, they'll probably look for it. If they've never heard of such a thing, you might want to get something going or launch a campaign. As far as the normal search pattern of an EMT, here's my version of what I do at an accident. Size up the scene, how many cars, how many patients, do I need anything additional to deal with things beyond my control, such as power, gas, gasoline, LP, LNG. Life threats that would not only affect my patient, but myself as well. Do I need flight, more units, an engine, you get the jist. I approach a car, walk completely around and look at everything before even getting close. Assess my patients as they are in the car and then make the decision as to stay and play or load and go. In the two FD's that I was on, infants if at all possible are to be transported in the car seat they are in, unless physically damaged or contaminated with something that would thraten their lives, and/or mine as well. Blood is also inclusive in some cases. I have never looked in a glovebox, if I ever looked at keys, it was to shut off an engine and I can honestly say that i've never looked at any key fob on any set of keys, ever. To make this plain and simple, MD's chime in here, you know what i'm talking about when I say this. There are sharp EMT's and dipsh*ts who couldn't hit their ass with both hands with their bunker pants on backwards. It all depends on who you get. Training will get you so far, alot of volunteer departments in the sticks will be coming from home, and will have been awake for about 10 minutes before they see you. I love volunteer departments and was on one but, and I say but, the standard of care will never be as close to a full-time or combination department. What i'm politely trying to say here is make this things to that even a blind man could see it. Make it as simple and obvious as possible. I've got an idea, aww dammit now imma gonna run to wally mart and check something out. Trust me, this is gonna be slick. Gimme a day and i'll have this thing nailed down.<br><br>Bri-

Okay, taking into consideration just how many brands, makes, models of car seats there are out there, this could drive one nuts alone trying to figure this out, plus think about the legalities involved with advising one to alter the design/attach something to their car seat. That being said, here's what were going to do in lieu of attaching something to the seat. Instaed of attaching a tag, were going to have a vinyl decal made up for each side of the car seat handle. Reflective, beginning with a red cross and ending with a red cross with this in the middle. Emergency medical information is located_____________________________. This then gives us more room to use whatever we want, as long as it's up to date and most important, there. Could be in the glove box, could be on the visor, could be on a key fob, but it must be where you say it is. Were going to get a red pouch from anywhere and label it accordingly to go on the driver's visor of each car and then in the glove box as well. This allows us to add a whole helluva lot more information, hell we could put all of our charts in there as well. An added benefit is that if the seat is ever lost or stolen, all your personal information is not out there for the world to see. The vial was a neat idea, but you can't really get enough room, whether you tape it, zip-tie it, strap it, crayon it etc, unless you put it close by, and/or elsewhere. If anyone would like a pair of stickers for the handle on your car seat, send me a message and i'll get the details. I'll stop at the sign guys and see what they can do. I would love to see the information on the seat, but just the legalities of altering a car seat in any way would probably go over like a fart in church. I'll see if I can make up a form on excel and narrow it down to one page to laminate. They have self-laminating pouches that seal themselves, so why not eh? 3M makes them, available anywhere like Office Yahoo or Wal-Whosemadingus. This method kinda eliminates the kids/dogs messing with it as well. I appreciate the input, it's neat to think this thorugh, just getting it narrowed down to easiest/cheapest/most effective/most noticed. Ideas? Thoughts?<br><br>Bri-

Hey Bri -<br><br>If you can design a basic form in Word, I can turn that into an Adobe Acrobat fillable form and we offer it to the DadLabs crew to post online here for anyone to use.<br><br>Rob

Most people started putting such packets on their children's seats because of the Vial of Life project. I recommend that anyone who wants such a packet go to that site and get their kit; it's free, and you can stick it anywhere. In my opinion, most people probably put it on their children's car seat because, if there is an accident, of course the baby has to be removed, so the back of the child's seat will be seen. That's honestly the best place to put it in my opinion. If you're worried about personal information, then note that you should NOT put your social security number or home address in the packet. The packet that the couple at our hospital had contained numbers for emergency contacts, a list of medication the couple was currently taking and what the baby was taking, allergies of each person, and the cell phone number of each parent. That was it. It was enough to help us determine how we could treat each person, and we could contact a family member to let them know what had happened. It wasn't enough information so that, if someone, say broke into their vehicle, could find out where they lived or something.

Don't get me wrong, I adore the vial of life, just the car seat we chose doesn't really have enough room to either packet or tube, being Perego their design just by nature is different. The base has a pocket on it which we might utilize, but the owners manual is huge and we're afraid to lose it. We have a good friend that has been a professional seamstress for a number of years, we may even have her put something on the outside of the bonnet, who knows. The whole thing of having it somewhere else was just in reply to having kids or dogs messing about with it. Tomaetoe, Tomato, you know. Either way, as long as it gets in the right hands.<br><br>HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL!! <br><br>Bri-

I just stumbled across this discussion. What a great concept. I have some of those 3M self-laminating things. I think I'll start making the lists up this weekend. Thank you so much for the idea. I hope we never have to use it, but at least it will give a little peace of mind.<br><br>I also think it would be helpful for you to post a picture of anything that you create to help give the rest of us ideas on what we shoudl be aiming for in the look of these stickers or vials.

Thanks. Great idea. Going to get started on it.<br>Daddy Teddy M. had a good Idea- computerize it and you can keep the photos up to date as needed.<br>Anyone handy with PhotoShop, iPhoto, InDesign, Pages or any other page layout program could post a template for us! (????)