I wish I had a nickel for every patient who drove himself/herself to the hospital when they experienced chest pain and shortness of breath and wound up having a heart attack. I'd be living on my own private island in French Polynesia right now.
Note to all and sundry: if you are having chest pain, nausea, sweating, weakness, palpitations, or shortness of breath- or any combination of one or more of those symptoms- CALL 911. DO NOT DRIVE YOURSELF TO THE HOSPITAL.
This may seem silly to someone who only lives five or ten minutes away from a hospital. But if you have those symptoms, it indicates that your heart is already being starved of oxygen (myocardial ischemia). If your heart is ischemic, you may be only seconds away from that heart muscle actually dying (myocardial infarction).
Not minutes, people; seconds. All it takes to convert your chest pain from ischemia to infarct is a shift of that clot by a distance that could fit easily on the head of a pin.
If that happens while you are driving yourself to the ER, you will not only be hurting yourself. You will also harm anyone standing in the path of your vehicle as you lose control. It's happened. I encountered such a person on one of my days off when he rear-ended me at an intersection. I got out to give him a piece of my mind and ended up performing CPR. On my day off. Don't drive yourself!
And don't get a friend or loved one to drive you, either. You may avoid hitting another car when your heart stops, but your friend will be a little distracted by your agonal breathing and will have to live with the guilt forever. Don't do that to your friend or loved one.
Medic units are trained to give care within minutes of the call and to transport you to the ER safely, while providing continuing progressive care for you all the way there. They exist for this reason. USE THEM.
I get plenty of anecdotes from people who drove themselves to the ER when they were having heart attacks because they were on ly one minute away, five minutes away, or even an hour away. These people were either extremely lucky, or the Angel of Death was was taking a pee break. Don't drive yourself.
Oh, and here are two more good reasons to let EMS take you to the ER:
1: The Medic Unit can run through red lights without getting stopped by a policeman who doesn't know you are dying;
2: Traffic will get out of the way of the Medic Unit- one way or another.
So when you have symptoms of a heart attack, call 911. Soon, you will be traveling quickly and safely to the ER while passing the corpses of those unfortunate souls who chose to drive themselves and died on the way.
Posted by ERNurse at February 04, 2007 05:41 AM | Email ThisPeople CALL 911.
Here's what happens when you dial 911 and say the magic words "Chest Pain."
As soon as the operator pick up your call your address is displayed on the screen, exception VoIP and Cell know that if that is case you'll have to provide your address.
Be advised the operator may seem rude. The op needs critical information and doesn't have time for a life story. They will cut you off and ask questions, and be very insistent on getting answers. Just listen and answer the questions.
While the operator is on the phone with you they are kicking your address to another operator to do the dispatching.
Less than 30 seconds after they picked up your call they are finding the closest in service units to your location. Within 60 seconds of your call the dispatch is going out the units.
When you make a call for chest pain it is automatically a Medic response as opposed to an aid response. Chest pain is considered a life threatening situation.
Standard response in KC will be an engine unit 2-3 firefighters, an Aid unit 2 firefighters and a medic unit 2 paramedics. They want 6 bodies on the scene because if you do require CPR that is a 5 man job.
Less than a minute after the FD gets the call the units are rolling. Than means less than 2 minutes after you call they are on the way. Now average response time in KC is right around 4 minutes. Less in urban areas more in East KC. The first units will be pulling up to your front door in less than six minutes after you make the call.
It would take you that long to get your coat, open the garage door, start the car and pull out. They can get to you faster that you could get out of your own drive let alone to the hospital.
The EMT on the first arriving engine or aid unit will be taking vitals, assessing you and hooking up a 3 lead ekg within the first couple of minutes. The medics normally arrive shortly after the first units, there are fewer medic units and thus they have longer response time. As long as the EMTs are on the scene you won't die, you may go into cardiac arrest put you won't die. The FD will thump on your chest all the way to the ER. We let you die in the care of ERNurse but not under the care of the FD (inside joke).
If initial indications are that you are having a heart attack the medics will hook up a twelve lead EKG. This will diagnose a heart attack. Less than 20 minutes after you called 911 the FD will know for sure if you are having a heart attack.
The medics carrying clot busting drugs, and medications to stabilize irregular heart beats.
When you call 911 the medication to save your life can be in your system in 15 minutes, if you drive you'd be still stuck in traffic or at best just arriving at the ER.
You pay for the Medic unit. If you think you are having a heart attack stroke or medical emergency call 911. The stuff is paid for, let the pros make the medical diagnosis.
Posted by: JCM on February 5, 2007 07:55 AMIf the you have a life threatening situation and the Medics administer drugs the Medics will transport you. Again the Medics are paid for in Taxes.
If you are not in a life threatening position and no advance care is required. The FD will call an ambulance for transport, you will be billed by a private ambulance.
The other case is if air lift is used, if you are critically ill and ground transport will take too long an airlift will be called. Again air lift is a private company and you will be billed.
Posted by: JCM on February 5, 2007 11:20 AMThanks ER Nurse once again for the informative post. Perhaps eventually you will reach all the people out there that lack common sense.
Posted by: TrueSoldier on February 6, 2007 12:33 PMI believe people (especially those of us that aren't members of the knee-jerk club) don't want OTHERS to go through a load of trouble for what may be nasty indigestion.
And if it is just nasty indigestion and we DID needlessly call for help, what about those that really needed the help.
t's hard to reconcile all that ....
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on February 10, 2007 01:21 PMBut what if it isn't?
How do you know if your call for help was needless unless you get it checked out? What if you are wrong?
What people do not understand is that fixing what is wrong is only part of the function of an ER. Sometimes it is just as helpful to find out what it is not. When in doubt, come on out. You sure as hell wouldn't lose any points with me for coming out and making sure.
Posted by: ERNurse on February 11, 2007 04:29 AM