There is a seriously injured person — an urgent ambulance is needed!
'Ferito grave' = feh-REE-toh GRA-veh. 'Urgente' = oor-JEN-teh. Stress the emergency.
Communicating the severity of an injury to emergency services to ensure rapid dispatch.
'Ferito' (injured person, noun/adjective) with 'grave' (serious) communicates severity. 'Serve' (is needed) uses the impersonal third person of 'servire'. Providing injury severity when calling 118 helps dispatchers send the appropriate response level — basic life support (BLS) ambulance, advanced life support (ALS) with a doctor, or a helicopter (eliambulanza). Always state consciousness and breathing status.
La vittima è incosciente e respira difficilmente.
The victim is unconscious and breathing with difficulty.
Critical triage information — affects dispatch priority.
C'è molto sangue — sembra un'emorragia grave.
There is a lot of blood — it looks like serious bleeding.
Specify visible symptoms to help dispatchers assess.
Serve l'eliambulanza — siamo su un sentiero di montagna.
A helicopter ambulance is needed — we're on a mountain path.
State access difficulties — 118 will coordinate with CNSAS if needed.
Italy's 118 emergency medical service is organised regionally. In major cities, ALS ambulances with doctors (medicalizzate) respond to the most serious calls within 8 minutes. In rural areas response times can be longer. Helicopter ambulances (elisoccorso) are available at HEMS bases distributed across Italy. The medical director on the call can give instructions for first aid.