How can I tell if I need to go to the emergency room?
If you aren't sure if you need to go to the emergency room (ER), remember the acronym URGENT; each letter stands for a symptom to be concerned about. Emergency medicine specialist Phillip Blanc, MD, describes these symptoms in detail.
Transcript
For instance, you cut your finger at home and you've held some pressure on it. It's one thing if, after holding pressure for like 5 to 10
minutes, the bleeding stops. But it's another thing if it continues after 10 minutes. [MUSIC PLAYING]
There are a lot of reasons why you should go to the emergency room. One way that I remember how to tell
when to go to the emergency room is this acronym. It's URGENT. And each letter stands for a different symptom. So U is for unexplained symptoms, symptoms
that you've never felt before, you can't put your finger on it. For instance, you've gotten chest pain that comes out of nowhere and you have some nausea and dizziness
with that, that could be a sign that you're having a heart attack. Or if you're not the type of person who gets headaches, but all of a sudden, you have a very severe headache,
you could have a brain aneurysm. So for anything that's unexplained to you, go to the emergency room. The R in URGENT is for rapid bleeding.
So for instance, you cut your finger at home and you've held some pressure on it. It's one thing if, after holding pressure for like 5 to 10
minutes, the bleeding stops. But it's another thing if it continues after 10 minutes. And especially if it's gushing, then you
should be making your way to the emergency room so we could do something like put a stitch in there for you to stop it. Or we even have some crazy glue-like substances
that we can use to close your cut. The G in URGENT is gone unconscious.
Certainly, if you've fainted or gone unconscious, it would be really important for you to seek medical care.
The E in URGENT is extreme vomiting or extreme diarrhea. So if you can't hold anything down,
you know, you just keep vomiting, we can certainly give you some medicine to keep your food where it should be-- inside.
The other thing that's really important when you're vomiting is that's an indication to be hospitalized, for you to stay overnight in the hospital
if you can't keep anything, and to also go if you have extreme diarrhea. That's having diarrhea over the course of several days
or having stool that's very black or bloody. If you have any other symptoms like having fever
or severe abdominal pain, that's reason, if you have diarrhea, to come to the emergency room. The N in URGENT is for numbness.
So these are signs of a stroke, feeling numb on any side of your body or feeling any weakness.
Any of those kinds of sensory or motor deficits, again, it could be indicative of something very serious
like a stroke. Come to the emergency room so we can figure out what's going on. And the last letter in URGENT is T for trauma.
A trauma can be defined as an injury that results from any external blow or force to your body
that results in symptoms like bleeding or bruising, which can be a sign of internal bleeding, or pain.
So for instance, you've fallen onto your wrist and you have a lot of pain there. It could be that you've broken a bone in your wrist.
Any suspicion that you've broken a bone, come to the emergency room so we can figure out what's going on.
critical care
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