Every director, counselor, and instructor will face this someday: someone collapses in front of you and every eye turns to you. And then comes the doubt that freezes your body for one fatal instant — do I call SAMU or put them in the car and drive?
This is not a question of curiosity. It's a clinical decision that you, an ordinary citizen, need to know how to make before you need it. In some emergencies, the minutes the ambulance takes arrive with a first responder inside; in others, insisting on driving them yourself costs dearly. Knowing how to tell the two apart is what separates panic from action.
This guide is about the citizen-responder, not about the club's protocol — the directorate's emergency plan we cover on another page. Here's the field essential: when 192 is the right number, what to say on the phone so help doesn't get lost, and what to do with your hands while the ambulance isn't there yet. Information verified on 07/23/2026 in the official sources of the Ministry of Health listed at the end. Nothing here replaces a first-aid course or the guidance of the regulating physician in the moment.
What is SAMU 192 — and what is it not?
SAMU is the Mobile Emergency Care Service, the arm of the SUS that brings help to you before the hospital. You reach it through the number 192, the call is free — from a landline or a cell phone — and it works 24 hours a day, every day, according to the Ministry of Health.
There's a detail many people don't know and that changes everything: whoever answers 192 is not just any operator, it's a medical dispatch center. First a technician notes where you are and what happened; next the call goes to the regulating physician, a doctor who assesses the case over the phone, decides whether to send an ambulance (and which one), and guides you to help while it's not there yet. That's why the next section insists so much on not hanging up: you are talking to a doctor, not calling a cab.
SAMU handles emergencies of many kinds — clinical (like heart attack and stroke), traumatic (accidents), surgical, obstetric (high-risk delivery), pediatric and psychiatric, including suicide attempts. It's the number for what is serious and acute.
And what it is not: SAMU is not an emergency room by phone or a house-call appointment. The Ministry of Health itself advises that it not be called for prolonged fever, chronic pain, vomiting or diarrhea without severity, prescriptions, tests, or routine appointments. For that there are the UBS (health post) and the UPA (urgent care unit). Calling 192 for what is not an emergency ties up the line of someone having a heart attack this very minute.
Which signs can't wait and mean you should call 192?
The golden rule fits in one sentence: is it sudden, is it serious, or is it getting worse fast? Call. You don't need to be sure of the diagnosis — the one who diagnoses is the regulating physician. You need to recognize the warning sign.
The Ministry of Health lists, among the situations for calling 192: strong chest pain (it may be a heart attack), signs of a stroke, severe shortness of breath, a seizure, a serious burn, an electric shock, an accident with a victim, a fall with a blow to the head or with a fracture, and the most serious of all — cardiac arrest, when the person doesn't respond and isn't breathing.
For stroke, keep a test that saves time, the SAMU of the face (same name, a handy coincidence): ask the person to Smile, Arms up (raise both arms), and sing or repeat a sentence (M for Music). A face that droops on one side, an arm that falls, slurred speech — any one of the three, call 192 right away (the U for Urgency) and note what time the signs began. That time is gold for the hospital.
| Sign you see | It may be | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No response and no breathing (or just "gasping") | Cardiac arrest | 192 now and start compressions (section ahead) |
| Drooping face, fallen arm, slurred speech | Stroke | 192 and note the time it started |
| Strong chest pain, cold sweat, arm pain | Heart attack | 192 and keep the person at rest |
| Severe shortness of breath, blue lips | Respiratory emergency | 192 and loosen tight clothing |
| Seizure that doesn't stop or a first-ever one | Convulsive crisis | 192, protect the head, don't hold the person down |
| Accident, fall from height, trapped victim | Trauma | 192 and also 193 (Fire Department) |
When in doubt whether to call or not, call. It's better for the regulating physician to say no ambulance is needed than for a real emergency to sit waiting for someone to "be sure."
192, 193, or 190: which number for each emergency?
Calling the right number saves the minutes the center would spend transferring you. The practical division is this:
| Number | Service | When it's the best point of entry |
|---|---|---|
| 192 | SAMU | Health problem: sudden illness, heart attack, stroke, fainting, seizure, burn, cardiac arrest |
| 193 | Fire Department | Trauma and rescue: accident with a victim trapped in wreckage, fall from height, drowning, fire, rescue |
| 190 | Military Police | Safety: violence, assault, threat, a risk situation caused by others |
The most confusing boundary is between 192 and 193, and the key is the word trauma. Sudden illness without an accident — the person felt ill, fainted, felt their chest — is SAMU's territory. But an accident in which the victim may have hurt their spine, broken a bone, gotten trapped in the wreckage, or is near fire is a situation where the Fire Department, trained in rescue, needs to step in.
And most important: they are not rivals. In many accidents, the right thing is to call both and describe the scene — the two teams complement each other, the Fire Department for the rescue and SAMU for the care of the victim. If you called the "wrong" number, that's fine: the center redirects. The serious mistake is not dialing 193 instead of 192; it's dialing nothing.
What to say on the phone so help doesn't get lost?
The ambulance is only fast if it knows where to go and what it will find. Speak calmly and be to the point. The Ministry of Health advises reporting, at a minimum:
- The full address — and at least two landmarks. On a farm or at a camp with no number on the gate, that is what saves the day: "such-and-such road, km 8, blue gate past the gas station, across from the soccer field."
- What happened, clearly. "A man of about 50, he fell, he's unconscious and breathing with difficulty" says more than "come quick."
- How many victims and the approximate age of each. That defines the type and number of ambulances.
- What the person is feeling and, if you know, conditions they already have (diabetes, heart problems, epilepsy) and medications they take regularly.
After passing that along, do the one thing most people forget in the fright: don't hang up. Answer the regulating physician's questions and follow their guidance step by step. It's the physician who will guide you through the compressions, tell you whether you can give water (almost always no), whether to turn the person on their side, whether to loosen their clothing. You are not alone on the phone — there's a doctor on the other end, and they can only help if you stay on the line.
A field tip for the club: keep the exact address of the meeting place and the camp written down and posted near where the leaders' phones are, with the landmarks already prepared. In the middle of an emergency, no one remembers the postal code or knows how to describe the dirt road. Reading is faster and safer than trying to remember.
Read alsoChoking and the Heimlich maneuver at the clubHelp is on the way: what to do while it isn't there yet?
The first minutes are yours. What you do with your hands until the ambulance arrives weighs heavily on the outcome — and the regulating physician will guide you in real time. A few general principles that apply to most scenes:
Make sure it's safe first. Before touching the victim, look at the scene: traffic, downed wires, fire, water. A responder who becomes a second victim helps no one. If there's a risk, remove the danger or wait for someone with equipment.
If the person doesn't respond and isn't breathing, it's cardiac arrest — and here you act. Ask someone to call 192 while you start. Lay the victim on their back on a firm surface and do compressions in the middle of the chest: resuscitation guidelines recommend the layperson push hard and fast, at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute and about 5 to 6 cm deep in an adult, letting the chest come all the way back between each one. Don't stop until help takes over. If there's an AED (defibrillator, that device in malls and airports) nearby, turn it on and follow the spoken instructions it gives — it's made for a layperson to use.
Seizure: don't hold the person down or put anything in their mouth. Move objects away, protect the head with something soft, and when the crisis passes turn them on their side. Time how long it lasted — the doctor will ask.
Choking with the person unable to breathe, cough, or speak: apply firm compressions to the abdomen, above the navel, pulling inward and upward (the Heimlich maneuver), until the object comes out. Babies have a different technique — another reason for every leader to take an in-person course.
Bleeding: press the wound with a clean cloth, firmly and without peeking every second. Most external hemorrhages stop with direct, constant pressure.
Notice the common thread: in all the doubts, the answer is the same — the regulating physician guides you. This guide does not replace a first-aid course, and a club that takes children to camp should have more than one leader truly trained.
What you should never do in an emergency?
A good part of the harm in lay first aid comes from well-meaning gestures. Keep this list as much as the one of warning signs:
- Never move an accident victim with a suspected spinal injury — unless they face an immediate risk of death right there (fire, drowning). Moving the neck of someone who fell from height or was in an accident can turn an injury into paralysis. In that case, it's 193 (Fire Department), with immobilization equipment, that removes them.
- Never drive someone in cardiac arrest yourself. The guidance from emergency services is clear: a victim of cardiac arrest should not be thrown into the car and driven off — they need continuous resuscitation on the spot until the team arrives. Rushing to the hospital with the body interrupts the one thing keeping them alive.
- Don't give water, food, or medicine to someone who fainted, had a seizure, or may need surgery, without the doctor's authorization. You could cause choking or interfere with the care.
- Don't put anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure. The old belief of "holding the tongue" with a spoon breaks teeth and injures — the tongue is not swallowed.
- Don't put toothpaste, butter, coffee grounds, or ice directly on the burn. Running water at room temperature and clean protection; the rest is for the team.
- Don't hang up on 192 before the regulating physician releases you, and don't call "to test" or make prank calls — a prank to an emergency number is a crime and can cost another person their life.
If you memorize only two things from this page, let them be these: call early and don't move what should not be moved. The rest the regulating physician builds with you over the phone.
How does the club prepare to call 192 without panic?
The time to learn how to call SAMU is not during the emergency. It's before — in an ordinary directorate meeting, with coffee on the table. Five simple agreements save precious seconds:
1. Address ready and in writing. Of the meeting hall and of each camp site, with two landmarks already worded. Post it on the board and save it in the leaders' phones. You already read this up above — it's the cheapest repetition to make and the one that saves the most.
2. One person assigned to call 192. In the moment of fright, if "everyone" is responsible, no one calls. Agree beforehand: who calls, who goes to the gate to receive the ambulance and signal, who looks after the other children so it doesn't turn into chaos.
3. Each Pathfinder's health record accessible. Allergies, conditions, medications taken regularly, and the parents' contact. It's what the regulating physician will want to know and what the parents need to be told next.
4. At least two leaders with a real first-aid course — in person, with CPR practice on a mannequin. The First Aid honor is an excellent path, but the training of the adult responsible for the group needs to be more robust than that of a requirement.
5. A first-aid kit checked before every outing. The pretty box is useless if the bandage ran out at the last camp.
This is the individual tip of a larger plan. The full structure — chain of decision, communication with parents, insurance, forms — is in how to build the club's emergency plan. Here the message is a single one: when someone's body fails in front of you, knowing how to dial 192, say the right things, and not do the wrong ones is already half the battle.