When to Go to the Emergency Room

Rushing the child to an emergency room is often unnerving. You often have to wait a long time because there are other there or a serious accident comes in. True emergencies as heart attack, chest pain, breathing problems, stroke, seizures, and accidents take priority over most acute illness. Your child is also ex-posed to sights and sounds that are quite disturbing. Finally, the ER costs often are expensive with copays or deductibles creating hardships for the family.

Who should go to the ER?

Here are children who should absolutely go:

• A child who is unconscious, disoriented, and is unable to recognize his or her par-ents
• A child with a seizure and does not have a history of seizures
• A child who is struggling to breathe or has blue lips
• A child who has fallen and now has a limb deformity
• An open laceration or one that continues to bleed
• Burns to the face, has a burn to more than one limb or one limb and the trunk of the body
• A child with a severe headache, fever, stiff neck and rash
• A child with acute onset of belly pain associated with vomiting or blood in the stool
• A child with wheezing and with trouble breathing.

We are doing our best to get children into the office who have a “cold”, perhaps wondering about Covid-19, so we can minimize the burden to the ER. If you have a question as to whether should go to the ER, give our nurse triage a call so we can help.