Posted on 02/02/2007 4:42:31 AM PST by 60Gunner
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.
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.
ER Nursing Ping.
Great advice.
THANK YOU 60Gunner.
A clot the size of a head of a pin? I had no idea clots that small could damage a heart - thanks for the information.
The nerve of that guy to have a heart attack on the poor doctor's day off!
This is good advice. Therefore, it must be ignored by all who are in this position.
My buddy actually got a ticket for speeding in this exact situation - literally blocks from the hospital. And he had to pay it. As it turned out it wasn't a heart attack but a rupture in his digestive system requiring immediate surgery but the judge wasn't sympathetic.
The judge told him he was endangering everyone else on the road.
I've seen ads advising to do this but hits a little more home coming from you. Thanks 60Gunner.
I would like to be added to your ping list if you don't mind. I am a Vol. Fire Fighter/ First Responder. Good advice in your post.
There you go, saving lives again!
Glad you're here, Gunner.
The clot is not the size of a head of a pin. It's the critical distance the clot can move that is so tiny.
My wife drove me to the hospital during my first heart attack and that was a mistake.
Another reason to call 911: When you arrive at the hospital by ambulance they'll see you right away. If you arrive by private car you may have to wait, and wait, and wait...
One of the most bizarre stories I heard was guy driving himself to the hospital while having an MI. He went into V tach and crashed into a retaining wall. When he hit the wall, he took the steering wheel to the chest, which defibrillated him and he came back around. True story - you can't make this stuff up.
Wow, Doctor... I had no idea that Honda made defibrillators. What will they think of next?
Maybe all the hybrid cars could double as AEDs. You turn the key and you hear, "ANALYZING NOW."
No kidding. THis was before the era of airbags, of course. I'm not sure an airbag would do the job.
I would have imagined that the guy would have been thumped back into sinus rhythm, only to die from cardiac tamponade. Wouldn't that be ironic?
You do have a way with words, sir.
But as an aside I have an ambulance story to share with you. About 10 years ago my first wife and my best friend were severely injured in a motorcycle accident and were transported to a small local hospital.
My friend was critically injured and 'coded' on the table twice, once right in front of me. My wife was cut up pretty bad but the ER folks said they were going to keep her one night and let her go. I was to go home and bring her some clothes for the night.
By the time I got home there was a message for me saying they couldn't locate a couple of her vertebrea and were going to send her to a better hospital.
So I turned around and sped back to the hospital because they said I could go with her in the ambulance.
Now most folks think an ambulance ride is at 100 miles an hour and most times it is. But this time because my wife had 3 burst fractures in her lower back they moved very, very slowly with lights and sirens.
Well believe it or not we were about half way from one hospital to the other when we got behind this woman who just froze up completely when we got behind her with the lights and sirens going.
I mean she froze like a deer in the headlights.
Of course this happened in a construction zone so there was no way to go around her.
She just sat there like her car had become the Buddha himself.
The driver got on the PA and told her to move.
Nothing.
The driver got out and started talking to her through the window.
Nothing.
Finally I got out and made some gestures which roughly translated into 'Move this *^%$**&%$ car or I'll wring your *^#$%&*(()_ neck!'
We then proceeded to the hospital at the blazing rate of 10 miles per hour.
Oh it's funny now, but at the time....
L
Good advice. I was taken to the ER by ambulance for premature atrial contractions which I mistakenly believed were symptoms of a heart attack. The second time, after getting a bill for $2,000, I drove myself. That was a mistake. I had to wait an hour before seeing a nurse. If it's important call an ambulance.
Last year my (73) year old Mom's defibrillator went of just as she touched the pump handle at a gas station. It almost knocked her down, and a kindly gentlemen finished pumping gas for her. She really thought it was static electricity.
10 minutes later while parked she was on the cell phone talking to a friend about what happened. The defibrillator hit her again, causing her to throw the cellphone down, and then hustle herself to Touro Hospital.
I have an uncle who drove to the hospital when he had chest pains and lived. The ER doctor said he was having a heart attack and that if he had been there a few minutes later, he would have died before reaching the hospital. ER could not have gotten him there sooner -- even ER admitted that. He was within a mile of the hospital.
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