An emergency card is not a medical record. It is the half-page someone reads while deciding what to do in the next ten minutes, often in a language that is not yours. Everything on it earns its place by changing what happens next.
Start with six things
- Blood type, if you know it.
- Allergies, especially to medicines — penicillin, anaesthetics, iodine.
- Conditions that explain what someone is seeing: epilepsy, diabetes, asthma, a heart condition, a pacemaker.
- Medication you take regularly, with the dose if you know it.
- Who to call, with the country code, and what that person is to you.
- Your insurance: the insurer and the policy number, and an EHIC if you have one.
Write it so a stranger can use it
Use the name of the drug rather than the brand where you can, since brands change across borders. Give doses in the units on the box. Say "sister" or "husband" next to a phone number, because a paramedic who has to make the call wants to know who is answering.
If you are pregnant, or recently were, say so. If you carry an adrenaline pen, an inhaler or a glucose gel, say where in your bag it is.
What to leave out
Old injuries that no longer matter, your whole medical history, and anything you would not want a fellow traveller to read. A card that is three screens long is a card nobody reads to the end.
Keep it current
Change it when your medication changes, when a policy is renewed, and when a phone number changes. A confident wrong answer is worse than no answer, and an expired policy number can hold up treatment abroad.
A card is not an official document. A scan of a passport is not a passport, and a photo of an insurance certificate is not proof of cover. Carry the originals; the card is there for the first questions and the first phone calls.