No Answer

A typical situation in the medical emergency room: the phone rings, I lift the receiver and say my name and function and then: silence. No answer. Nothing.

I repeat „hello, you can speak now“ but noone talks, only static crackles. But I also hear that the line is open. And sometimes I can hear somebody breathe.

And then I know from experience that this is usually someone who is trying to commit suicide. Maybe he’s just taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Maybe there’s a loaded gun next to him and I’m the last person he calls.

Usually I just ask bluntly: „Hello, how are you? Did you swallow any tablets? Do you need help? What’s your address?“

That’s usually when I hear the first sound. Often it is not clear talking but a muffled sigh or some crying, sobbing. Only later come the words. As soon as I get an address, I’ll send an ambulance to the place.

Once a lady told me that she had taken an overdose of tranquillizers to end her life and in that moment in the background you could hear a door open and her family come home.

She hang up.