Didn't take the Leaf to the E.R.

[adric22]

I just thought I'd share this, as I know a while back this was a topic of discussion at one point. Last Tuesday evening I was having some irregular heart beats and I was sort of freaking out and decided I wanted to go to the E.R. I was home from work, my wife just arrived. The Leaf had about 70% charge and my wife's Volt was totally depleted. To make matters more interesting, our internet service had just gone out. We know where some hospitals are about 20-30 minutes North of us. However, my wife was telling me there was a brand new hospital about 10-15 minutes South of us. The trouble is, she didn't know exactly what road it was on or anything about it. Nor could we use the internet to look it up. I looked for it on google-maps on my iPhone but did not see anything, but she was sure it was there.

The Leaf had enough juice to get us to either hospital and back, but I wasn't sure it would be enough to go South and then possibly NOT find the place or it turn out not to be the type of hospital we needed, and have to drive all the way back and go to the one North of us.

So when it came time to pick a car, I picked the Volt even though it meant driving on I.C.E.

And so I guess the moral of the story is, if you have a Leaf or other BEV it might be a good idea to know which hospital you would go to in an emergency and know how far away it is, especially if it is your only car.

To follow up, we did find the closer hospital without issue and obviously I didn't die. They ran every conceivable test and said there was nothing medically wrong with me, I was just having heart palpitations and to go home and follow up with regular doctor.

 

[pkulak]

This is why charging infrastructure is so important. Quick charging, to be specific. I'm not totally sold on the value of public L2.

I had a similar story to you yesterday, though not nearly as dramatic! The family drove out to a tree farm for our Christmas tree. The Leaf was at 80% and the tree farm was 25 miles away. So, in theory, it should make it. But, I lost a bunch of charge climbing some elevation right before the farm, and I _hate_ VLBW, so, we stopped at a Fred Mayer on the way home for a quick charge back to 80% while we got the stuff we needed for dinner that night.

I almost never get range anxiety because there are so many quick chargers around here. Worst case is a 10-minute stop and a $5 payment to Blink. If it wasn't for all the infrastructure I doubt a car with a 24 kWh battery could be my family's only car.

 

[Devin]

Luckily for me I could make it to the nearest E.R. on turtle mode. I'm only 3,000ft away! Glad to hear you're doing well.

 

[ebill3]

Good news on the old ticker.

I have similar vehicle concerns should a similar event occur, as my wife is not comfortable driving the Tesla. She will be OK once she gets a few miles under her belt, so I encourage her to drive when we are together. I do keep both charged to 80%.

Of course, there is always a taxi or 911.

 

[Boomer23]

This is why charging infrastructure is so important. Quick charging, to be specific. I'm not totally sold on the value of public L2.

In our area, we haven't, until recently, been lucky enough to have much DCQC available. While I agree that public DCQC is highly preferrable for convenience, I've found that with a 6 kW on-board charger, public L2 is very useful. Two examples.

We did an overnight weekend round trip of 225 miles recently. We weren't in a big hurry, public L2 was available in spots where we wanted to stop for a few hours at a time for meals and sightseeing, and we had a wonderful, relaxed trip. The only stress was concern about the L2 spots being taken, ICEd or broken, but for each stop, we had enough public L2 options in the area that we could have coped. Admittedly, my ultimate backup plan for the return trip was the availability of DCQC at one of two different Nissan dealers, but we never ended up using that option.

Secondly, I recently was able to use my LEAF to pick up friends at the airport and then ferry them to downtown LA, where we were invited to a drive event. The round trip was 122 miles, all freeway, and I did it all using public L2. I charged briefly at the airport during the pickup, and then for 2 hours at the convention center during the drive event.

While having DCQC in the area now, thanks to the Nissan dealers, provides a Plan B for peace of mind for trip planning, I've very rarely actually needed to use it.

 

[ksnogas2112]

Glad you're ok.

Reading through the postings it is interesting on the different experiences. Like adric we have long distances around here to do anything but mostly commuter driving. With winter here and 10% down on the battery I can't make it to the airport and back w/o a charge and there's really no good place to do that if I'm picking people up. I'll sit at the Harley factory and wait for myself but no one else would want to spend 2 hours there (damn that 3.3 kwh OBC).

 

[cgaydos]

This topic hits one of main points about the LEAF in the US (excluding Hawaii), which is that for most people it works if you also have access to a car with an ICE, even if it's just a range extender. Some people's situations allow them to use alternate transportation, such as a rental car or public transport, when they have to go outside the range of the LEAF. For most people it doesn't. I wish that were different - I'd like to see European-style public transportation infrastructure here in the US, and while I'm wishing for things that are not going to happen I'd also like to see a cultural shift whereby people no longer think it's normal to commute 50 or so miles one way every day (no one wins in this situation). But that is the current reality.

 

[thankyouOB]

good to hear you are ok. there is real value in going to the er when you are worried.

yes, non-routine events can make life with the LEAF tricky.
also visits from the kids. i have not in my time with the LEAF had a problem with being adequately charged, as life is pretty routine in terms of driving. but the visit from the grown-up offspring challenged that this weekend. the new rule is always charge when they are around, as i never know when a trip or a longer trip is about to (in the next four hours) happen.

 

[jhm614]

Glad the ticker is okay!

 

[Stoaty]

If you had taken the Leaf and ran out of electrons before you found the hospital you probably would have had a heart attack! Glad to hear you got a clean bill of health.

Closest hospital to me is about 1.5 miles (slight downhill), so I could probably make it even if I was close to turtle. Since the Leaf is generally blocking the ICE vehicle (tandem parking in condo garage), it would also be a lot faster for me to take the Leaf.

 

[TimLee]

Glad to hear all the tests were negative adric22.
As someone who has had stress induced chest pain at several points in time over the past 20 years, and had three tread mill tests (two of them nuclear), I certainly understand the situation you faced and you did the right thing, much better to have spent time on testing to know the situation better, than take chances with not knowing and a potentially much worse outcome.

My experience with not taking the LEAF was when my 90 year old mother-in-law called when she was having major medical problems.
Even though the two major hospitals are only 16 miles away, I did not think taking the LEAF was very prudent in that situation.
I drove the 2009 Altima ICE.
Was the right choice. My mother-in-law did not get admitted and into a room for more than 10 hours.

Although I could have camped out in the Emergency room for the night, that is a really bad choice. From a standpoint of comfort I think a good size cardboard box outside on the sidewalk might be better.
Much more reasonable to get a small bit of sleep and be able to listen to the satellite radio in the 2009 Altima ICE.
Extremely inefficient to run the ICE about 20 minutes every hour, but with the 14 gallon fuel tank on the 2009 Altima I could stay warm and comfortable for at least 3 or 4 days.

With 24 kWh in the LEAF, it would have great heat too. But for probably less than 8 to 10 hours, and then I wouldn't have been able to drive home to get some sleep when my brother-in-law got there to stay with my mother-in-law. I did learn a lot about the severely adverse impact of urinary tract infections over the next 5 days. Since I'm 56, I keep that in mind a lot. Stay hydrated, cranberry supplement tablets, be aware that confusion, lack of balance control might have a simple cause that needs to be treated.

I love the LEAF, but I detest how Nissan has handled many things over the past 3 years.
The LEAF is great, but it isn't appropriate for all situations.

 

[RegGuheert]

I'm glad to hear all is well!

However, my wife was telling me there was a brand new hospital about 10-15 minutes South of us. The trouble is, she didn't know exactly what road it was on or anything about it. Nor could we use the internet to look it up. I looked for it on google-maps on my iPhone but did not see anything, but she was sure it was there.

Why not just hop in the LEAF and look for "Hospital" in the GPS? :lol:

I will say that the two times we went to the emergency room with one of my sons last year, we also did not take the LEAF. We maintain the leaf below 50% SOC, so it is not generally available for unplanned trips.

 

[Klayfish]

Glad to hear you're OK, that's the most important thing.

This issue has crossed my mind more than once. I've got 3 young kids in school and I work 25 miles from home. My wife's work is 50 miles from mine (we go 25 miles each in the opposite direction). If something were to happen while I'm at work, I'd probably have to switch cars. Then again, when it comes to my and my family health, I don't care if I have to leave the LEAF somewhere because it doesn't have enough juice to get back, drive an ICE car, a grease car or a pedal car, I'm doing what I have to do.

 

[TimLee]

... I don't care if I have to leave the LEAF somewhere because it doesn't have enough juice to get back, drive an ICE car, a grease car or a pedal car, I'm doing what I have to do.

Yes, you do what you have to do.
If you drive a LEAF, there will be times you have to do something else infrequently.
Back in the 80's I actually took a taxi home (~16 miles) when my ICE broke down and the other ICE was out of operation.Taking a taxi home was enlightening though. Even though I presented no risk and the neighborhood I lived in presented no risk, the taxi driver was so accustomed to the hazards that taxi drivers face, that he was continuously vigilant to hazards. Almost went nuts when kids were playing in the street on my dead-end low risk neighborhood.

 

[jsongster]

It seems clear to me that many of us who live in big metropolitan or metroplex/urban suburban environs, can easily use our cars for 90+ % of our trips.

For those in less developed or rural areas... there are unlikely to be enough charging opps for that to be true.

Why, when we are second or third wave pioneers of electric car drivers, do we often act indignant when the infrastructure is not perfect.

This is new stuff... the world is against us... nearly completely... ICE cars have had over a 100 year head start on infrastructure... and public subsidies for Big OIL are huge... they have billions to lose if we win.

All politics are local... if you want to drive your car everywhere... tell every business you frequent that you would appreciate EVSEs on their property. I would almost guarantee that few to none of them have ever been asked. Tell all your pals about them... give them a ride somewhere in it.

If all 50k of us... Tesla and Nissan owners in the US do this we might get this thing really going.

This movement has gotten farther this round than ever in the last 100 years. I watched it grow and die in the 80s and 90s and now there are 2 major manufacturers actually selling a decent number of cars... they wouldn't even sell them last time cause they knew they planned to pull the plug and crush them as soon as the leases were up.

This time we have an electric highway connecting 2 entire states and their metro areas... as soon as CA gets the NRG EVgo stations it should span from Canada to Mexico... this is going really well...

Enjoy your cars... we have all fought hard to get them... and they will get even better if we keep working with and not against the manufacturers.

 

[Klayfish]

If you drive a LEAF, there will be times you have to do something else infrequently.

Exactly. Hopefully, if you've done your homework and research before getting a LEAF, then those times will be infrequent at most. I've had my car 4 months now and have never had an issue like this yet. My lease is 2 years long, so if I have that issue once or twice over the entire term, not a big deal. The car is still worth it.

 

[tinaCA]

Glad you're OK - but ambulances are a good option for emergencies, people who live alone can't (or shouldn't) try to drive themselves to the hospital when having potentially serious illness, and many people don't have a car at all. So worrying about whether you can drive yourself to a hospital seems strange to me.

 

[LakeLeaf]

And so I guess the moral of the story is, if you have a Leaf or other BEV it might be a good idea to know which hospital you would go to in an emergency and know how far away it is, especially if it is your only car.

To follow up, we did find the closer hospital without issue and obviously I didn't die. They ran every conceivable test and said there was nothing medically wrong with me, I was just having heart palpitations and to go home and follow up with regular doctor.

Glad to hear your are OK! Great advice about knowing exactly how to get to the nearest hospital - or in our case, the closest place to the house they can land a helicopter!

Looking forward to many more posts from you.

 

[Phatcat73]

This thread is a bit ridiculous. Folks need to plan accordingly for any out of the norm trip. Medical emergencies supercede total range. If I was driving myself to the hospital, all I would worry about is range to get there, and not home. Dying is a bigger problem than calling in your complimentary roadside assistance, or charging somewhere on your way home.

 

[RegGuheert]

Dying is a bigger problem than calling in your complimentary roadside assistance, or charging somewhere on your way home.

Sure, but if someone is sick who wants to stop at a public charging station for an hour or more on the way home?