When to Go to the Emergency Room!!
 

this thread
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/568675-start-day-w-puking-great.html
prompts me to start a thread for the clinicians here to explain to the rest of us what symptoms should cause one to immediately go to the ER

- obviously, table sawing fingers, or being crushed by a 911 that was on concrete blocks are included and obvious to anyone, so we can leave those out...

I'll throw in falling off the back fo your riding mower and having it land on top of you... arm still hurts

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/567900-messed-up-arm.html


:)

Obvoius to some, but others may want to see if it gets better first.

Cool.pale, and diaphoretic

Any Time she's working!


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1286567031.jpg

Emergency room is required when I can't stop the blood from leaking out. FYI I have done my own stitches so it has to be pretty bad.

Puking should stop when your stomach is empty. If it don't then E-room will fix it with tests needles and drugs.

Simple. If you have to ask if it's time to go the the ER, it's time to go to the ER.

I'm pretty sure the general rule of thumb in southern California is as soon as little Enrique has a mild cough immediately go to emergency room and demand antibiotics.

Actually this should be more of a multiple options:

Stay home and rest

Wait until Monday and see the family doctor

Go to Urgent Care

Go Straight to ER

My basic belief is that unless you're having a heart attack or you've just been in a car accident (or equal type accident), it is better to go to urgent care or wait for family doctor.

I tried getting my dad (Cut hand) and my mother (Broken foot/Jones fracture) to go to Urgent care, so we didn't have to wait 5 hours to see a PA or NP. Nope, both wanted to go to the ER.

difficulty breathing, chest pain, uncontrolled bleeding, LOC, dehydration from puking and diarrhea as well as serious head injury........

possibly all call for ambulance transport as well.


not all at the same time.

When delaying a visit may cause loss of life, limb, vision, when something in or on your body begins hurting like crazy for no obvious reason or if someone looks at you and says "Holy Jeebus, you (or some part of you) look(s) terrible!!"

Oh yeah, gun shot wounds...

Immediately? I broke a bone and waited a few days before deciding it's not getting better, and driving myself to Urgent Care.

Urgent Care was very quick, freindly, and courteous. I'd rather avoid the ER if possible.

Something like this would come from a CSI! Course would sniper agree about the .380 comment? :)

Only if it came from a Glock

Not at all, but he and I both have the Crimson Trace lasers on our. 380s which effectively doubles the power of any. 380 SD round. ;)

I got out of bed to get ready for work one morning. Humm.....my ballance is shot....prolly some inner ear thing. Stumbled down stairs to the kitchen & poured a cuppa joe......no small chore. Got to the crapper and tried to read a book....humm.....the words are familar but make no sense.....this is not good.
Got out to the puter and couldn't hit the keys to make it go.....hummm....maybe it's not an inner ear problem. Woke up the wife and we went to the ER. She, unlike me, is no fool. They told me it was a stroke...and not the first one. Yes, well......

http://www.erie.gov/health/pdfs/emergency_department.pdf

Has recs from american college of emergency physicians. Which I can't seem to paste in, or to find on the acep page. But theres the link anyway.

In southern California, you don't go to an ER unless you have no insurance, have 12 hours to kill and you speak only "some" english.

That's assuming you can actually find an ER that is still open and hasn't gone broke treating illegals and the uninsured for free.

We took the kids to the ER for very high fevers (107F once, sounds impossible but that's what the therm read, she was immediately dunked in lukewarm water then rushed to ER - a bit complicated as we were in Florence - the bill was about $20). Also for lacerations that need stitching, suspected fractures. Obviously would go for difficulty breathing, non-responsive, etc.

For adults, I've only been to ER once, when I believed was having a heart attack (mistaken).

I've ony been for lacerations and dog bites on both hands the day before Christmas a number of years ago. They didn't suture dog bites so just bandaged me up and sent me home. I looked like a prize fighter on Xmas morning. All healed nicely, just a few scares. I tried to break up a dog fight and got the short end of the deal.

A related issue is, why aren't there more urgent care clinics? On Fri AM I was vainly searching OHSU website for any hint of an urgent care clinic.

My wife is a certified ER nurse, plenty of ICU, CCU experience, could start an IV on a hummingbird if it came right down to it I think. Mom is a retired anesthesiologist. Between them, something has to be pretty bad before I am going to saddle up for the ER.

I always tell my patients to call me if they think they need to go to the hospital. That way, I can assess them and see if they really need to go. If they do, I can do a direct admit and they don't sit in the ER all day.

Seems that you and Red-Beard are having "good" experiences in UC. I shattered my wrist and had to wait over 6 hours to see someone. I vowed never to go back to UC and I'd rather pay the extra money to have ER take care of me in an hour or less.

I've brought brought my wife (small cut she swore had her staring into the light) to the ER and she was in the back getting steri-strips applied within 15 minutes of getting there. Same thing when I had to bring one of my kids in as well.

I find our ER much quicker and more responsive than the UC.

people I knew or friends never waited..
all those GOMERS..well those are a different species..
best to view them from afar a bit first..

a good ER will go into overdrive lickety split..
that cold your complaining about..
makes them angry & you wait..

Rika

Unfortunately this is true is some respect they aren't all illegal, there is a large group out there that feel going to the ER is the universal fix all for everything, drunk in public, homeless, or just sick.
I had a kidney stone a couple years ago while on duty, I had the guys take me to the ER then it would have to be something that bad for me to go again. Severe chest pain, ALOC, GSW, broken bone etc.