When to Go to the Emergency Room!!

[RWebb]

this thread
Start The Day W/ Puking - Great
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...

[id10t]

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

messed up arm

[GH85Carrera]

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

[quicksix]

Cool.pale, and diaphoretic

[t-tom]

Any Time she's working!

[Joe Ricard]

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.

[TechnoViking]

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

[LSA]

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.

[red-beard]

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.

[widgeon13]

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.

[pavulon]

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!!"

[red-beard]

Oh yeah, gun shot wounds...

[UconnTim97]

Don't you mean gun shots wounds from guns above. 380 caliber?

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by RWebb

...to immediately go to the ER

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.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by UconnTim97

Don't you mean gun shots wounds from guns above. 380 caliber?

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

[Vonzipper]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

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

Only if it came from a Glock

[UconnTim97]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

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

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.

[J P Stein]

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......

[jyl]

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.

[sammyg2]

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.