One fine morning i came across this piece of write up about "How to respond when there is a Medical Emergency?" (in Times of India, Health column) in a very simple and readable description. Since I am never into a field of  writing, I somehow find it difficult to make it more readable but request one and all to go through it as it is. Infact it is a common teaching almost everywhere to all our Medical professionals, Nursing Professionals, para medical Staffs and even to a lay man yet followed by few. I am not that very sure whether it will help us follow at the ground level but find it important to share because it might touch few individuals and help them change life or save a life if practice in one way or the other.

E-Emergency does not come with a prior information/notice. Some one could feel breathless and start sweating all of a sudden or some one could get a sudden attack of paralysis. In such situations, more often than not, we panic because we dont know how to handle such situations.The best thing to do is to maintain calm and contact a reliale Emergency Experts.

Emergencies can be of various kinds. A Heart Attack, Trauma and Accidents, Stroke or a Child Emergency. All these will have typical symptoms. One should observe the sumptoms carefully. For example, a quick way to understand Stroke symptoms is through the FAST acronym.

F-Facial Weakness
A-Arm Weakness
S-Speech difficulty
T-Time to act

Likewise, a Cardiac Emergency (heart attack) will show symtoms like breathlessness, nausea (lua suah), cold sweat (chivot in khawsa pawt veve), radiating pain in the left arm or pain and discomfort in the chest. It is extremely important to recognise these symptoms and act quickly. In case of Trauma and Accidents, you might find a victims lying unconcious or bleeding at the accident site. Immediately assess the patient and plan for early transfer to a Hospital preferably a Trauma centre (details of Trauma care lets have it seperately).

Any Emergency can be managed if one rushes the affected to Emergency Expert as soon as possible. The first hour is the Critical Hour or the Golden Hour. If a patient is taken to a good hospital which has a trained Emergency Respond Team, chances of survival and cure will be very high and the cost incurred will also be minimal as complications are minimized. Hence it is extremely critical that time should not be waisted in experimenting by taking the patient to a regular clinic, because a general clinic will eventually recommend specialised emergency treatment.

An Emergency Response Team in a reputed Hospital will have an emergency equipped ambulance, because the initial treatment needs to start immediately, even while a patient is on its way to the hospital. And more importantly, Emergency Response Team will have doctors who are specially trained to handle emergencies. Doctors who operate in a specially designated area with a core team of trained support staff, with advanced medical installed for life saving procedures. So, in case of any medical emergency, dont take chances. Call or rush to an Emergency Experts.

Few instructions above might not be feasible back home but one should atleast have a click in mind or critical thinking when we come across such scenarios. At that very moment the person present with the patient/victim should be in control, calm and compose and should never show nervousness if possible to avoid any kind of distractions. Instead He/She should immediately think of transfering the patient to a hospital well equipped with all medical facilities.