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Aussie nurse reveals little-known phone hack that can save your life

A Sydney nurse has urged people to update their medical ID on their phone as it "might just save your life".

Lauren was in the line for a Boost Juice at a shopping centre on Tuesday when a woman down the hall collapsed and hit her head.

Being the only person with a healthcare background, she quickly rushed to her aid.

"I immediately went over to see if they needed any help," she recounted on TikTok.

A photo (left) of a Sydney nurse on TikTok explaining the importance of having a medical ID on your phone. Another photo (right) of the nurse Lauren wearing her nurse uniform.
A Sydney nurse has spoken about treating a woman at a shopping centre and the benefit of updating medical ID on your phone. Source: TikTok / studyvlogloz and Instagram / studyvlogloz

"Having a duty of care and being comfortable doing basic life support, I was like alright I need to put my big girl pants on and step in.

"She was not in a good way at all."

Lauren first got someone to call triple-0 and asked the centre management staff to get a defibrillator for CPR, as "she was very close to being unresponsive".

Being in the dark about what caused the woman to collapse, the Sydney nurse had the idea to check the medical ID on her iPhone.

"I held the lock button and volume button together at the same time and swiped to her medical ID," she said.

"She didn't have it updated but she did have her name, her birthday, her height and her weight."

"Literally just because I had her name meant I was able to communicate better with her, and she was able to communicate by squeezing my hand a little bit better knowing I was talking to her.

It did turn out that the woman had a cardiac condition — which is what made her pass out in the first place — and Lauren said having that information in her medical ID would've been helpful for any medical professionals on the scene.

"I urge everyone to update theirs," she said on TikTok.

"And if you're not comfortable having your medical ID on your phone, what you can do is include an emergency contact which will allow someone on scene to call them and find out what your history is and whether this has happened before."

Social media users follow nurse's advice

The TikTok video was viewed almost 400,000 times, with many astonished to find out they can enter their medical ID in their phones.

"I didn’t even know this was a thing! Just went and done mine including everything I could!! Thank you," one person said.

"Thank you for sharing this! I have a peanut allergy and always freak out about something happening if I’m alone and people not knowing about my allergy," said another.

"Thank you for this, my nan has a bad heart condition and this just reminded me to put this on her phone," a third person said.

How do I enter my medical ID?

According to Apple support, the way to create your medical ID on an iPhone is to go into contacts, click your profile, scroll to the bottom where it says 'Create Medial ID,' enter your details including date of birth, allergies, blood type and emergency contacts, and click done.

To make your details accessible when your phone is locked, you can also turn on 'Show When Locked'.

For an Android phone, go into settings and click on 'Safety and Emergency'. From there you can add details on the Medical Info page.

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