Quick question: Let’s say you’re an EMT responding to an emergency call in the middle of the night. You arrive at your destination, find a shared driveway with multiple mailbox numbers but aren’t sure which house corresponds to which address.

What do you do?

That’s a question Killingworth Ambulance Association EMTs confront often enough that they’re making a public appeal, reminding local residents to post visible address numbers identifying their homes. Otherwise, they said, first responders can get lost.

That sounds as logical as it is rudimentary. But, apparently, the message hasn’t gotten through.

“The biggest problem,” said Mike Haaga, the KAA’s chief of service, “is common driveways. There seem to be a lot of them in Killingworth, and some are long driveways. They’re kinda like private roads, with a house on the right and one on the left … and at the end of the road, they could have a number of mailboxes. When you stand there, how do you know which is which?”

You don’t.

“You see that,” said EMT James Fretz, “and you go, ‘Uh-oh. I don’t know if we can find it.’ “

One responder recalled a recent call where two homes were located in close proximity to each other, yet only one mailbox appeared in front of the two. Because both had reasonably long driveways, the ambulance backed down the shorter of the two, with EMTs hoping they’d come to the correct address.

They hadn’t. Result: A delay that could’ve been … but wasn’t … critical to the victim.

“I’ve had one house in the past month where the ambulance responded three times,” said an EMT. “And two of the three times we went down the wrong driveway … because neither they nor their neighbor had a house that was marked. And that’s just during the day. During the night, it’s really hard to find them.”

OK, we’ve established it’s a concern. What can you do? EMTs have a variety of suggestions, and let’s get started.

• First and foremost, if you have a mailbox at the end of your driveway, have it marked with visible numbers on both sides (preferably in reflective figures). Emergency rescue vehicles could be coming from either direction.
• If you’re on a shared driveway with multiple mailboxes, make sure to post an address number where it can be seen by first responders. Trees were mentioned as one possibility.
• If there’s more than one person inside the home, it can be helpful for an individual to stand outside and direct emergency vehicles to the address.
• If it’s an evening call, turn on lights inside the home … if, that is, it’s possible. “I hate waking up people in the middle of the night,” said one EMT, “and it’s the wrong house.”
• “Sometimes,” an EMT said, “the number is on the front of the house, but you can’t see it because the house is 100 yards in from the road. When a call comes in, it can be helpful if the victim tells the 911 operator something like the color of the house. But that can happen only if the person calling can give them the information. Often, they’ve fallen and can’t.”
• Several years ago the KAA appeared at local fairs and civic events to hand out porch light bulbs that blinked on and off after they were activated. That helped in emergencies, especially at night, with the flashing lights serving as a distress signals to first responders

“A good decision,” Plato once said, “is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” The Killingworth Ambulance Association would disagree. Its EMTs believe a good decision is based on knowledge AND numbers.

“Every little bit helps,” said Fretz. “As long as people have a number that can you see … that’s the important thing. The important thing is just to get a number on the mailbox.”

The KAA’s advice dovetails with information documenting a recent surge in responses – especially with falls. According to the Ambulance Association, it answered a record 496 calls in 2021, up 34 percent from the previous year (370), with 117 of those responses the victims of falls. That’s a 64.7 percent hike from 2020 (71).

Bottom line: Identify your home with visible numbers. Your life could depend on it.

“For those who don’t think it’s important,” said Haaga, “I’d tell them, ‘It’s not. It’s not important at all … unless you want to have an ambulance or fire truck show up at your house.’ ”

The number of emergency responses by the Killingworth Ambulance Association jumped dramatically in 2021, but the cause of those calls did not.

As was the case in 2020, victims of falls led all responses, followed by sick persons and individuals with breathing problems. Those were the same three (though not in that order) that led all calls in 2020 when the KAA responded to 370 emergencies.

So nothing different there.

But look at the number of calls compiled by the KAA. There were 496 in 2021, a 34 percent increase over the previous year. Now look at the number of fall victims. There were 117 in 2021, or 23.6 percent of the total. There were 71 last year, or 19.2 percent of the total, and 75 the year before.

That’s a 64.7 percent hike in one year, and one that’s not easy to explain.

“We didn’t pass on as many calls last year,” said Mike Haaga, the KAA’s chief of service, searching for an explanation, “so that made our call volume higher. Second, we did more mutual-aid calls to other towns. I don’t know if there was a COVID ‘rebound,’ where people weren’t calling the ambulance (in 2020) because of COVID and then thought it had subsided. But they may have been calling for more things.”

That might explain the number of calls for sick persons. That figure jumped from 36 in 2020 (9.7 percent) to 62 one year later, or 12.3 percent of the total. Breathing problems, however, did not increase. In fact, they were unchanged. Where there were 36 in 2020, there were 36 the following year.

What follows are the Top Five KAA calls for 2021:

1. Fall victims … 117 (23.6)
2. Sick persons …62 (12.3)
3. Breathing problems … 36 (7.3)
4. Chest pain … 26 (5.2)
5. Altered mental status … 25 (5.0)

What’s intriguing about these figures is that, for the first time in years, traffic accidents didn’t make the Top Five. Instead, they were sixth with 25 responses, or 4.8 percent of the total.  In 2019, for example, they were second, with 35 calls (9.9 percent).

But that was before COVID arrived.

Here’s a comparison with the Top Five of 2020:

1. Fall victims … 71 (19.2)
2. Breathing problems …. 36 (9.7)
3. Sick persons … 35 (9.5)
4. Not entered … 32 (8.6)
5. Traffic accidents … 25 (6.8)

Also of interest in 2021 were responses for unconscious persons or individuals who fainted. In 2020, there were only five. That number jumped to 12 one year later, or 2.4 percent of the total and one more than there were in 2019 (11).

KAA figures are kept annually, with calls recorded electronically on patient-care reports by EMTs on the scene.

For the first time in two years – or since the outbreak of COVID – the Killingworth Ambulance Association will hold a CPR class this Friday, May 6, at its Route 81 headquarters.

The class begins at 6 p.m. and is expected to last approximately three hours.

As was the case prior to COVID, Don McDougall will serve as an instructor. McDougall, who marks his 51^st anniversary with the KAA this summer, tried to hold a class in 2020 but cancelled it after the COVID outbreak.

He said he normally does three to four classes per year.

“People ask: Why should I take it?’ “ McDougall said of CPR. “The great percentage of heart attacks happen at home, and you could be the only person there. If you call an ambulance, it could be 10-15 minutes before somebody gets there. In the meantime, you could be saving a loved one or family member.”

McDougall speaks from experience. Outside of the KAA, he said, he’s had three experiences with heart-attack victims. The first was when he was a pre-teen visiting grandparents in Maine. Descending a set of stairs, McDougall said he turned to see his grandfather – who had followed him down the steps — fall to the floor.

He had suffered a heart attack and later died.

“If somebody had known what to do,” he said, “we might have been able to do something.”

Friday’s CPR class is free for Killingworth residents. All non-residents will be required to pay a $25 fee.

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.