10 Reasons to Use an Emergency Room for Chest Pain and Heart Attacks

10 Reasons to Use an Emergency Room for Chest Pain and Heart Attacks

When blood flow to the heart is blocked, a heart attack ensues. It is one of the most serious health conditions out there, and one that is without doubt a medical emergency due to the fact that it is life-threatening. Due to the fact that blood is blocked from flowing to the heart, heart muscles end up not getting oxygen. This is why it is important to seek immediate medical attention when you see signs and symptoms of heart attacks, and chest pain is one of the main ones and one that is closely associated with a heart attack. This is because, the more time you take without seeking help, the more damage your heart muscles suffer due to a lack of oxygen. Although there are a number of options you can choose from as far as getting medical attention is concerned (that is an emergency room, your personal physician or an urgent care clinic), when it comes to chest pain and heart attacks, there is only one place to go; the emergency room. This is because it is a potentially life-threatening condition and should always be handled at an ER. There are a number of reasons that make an emergency room the best place to go to for chest pain and heart attacks and this article will look to highlight 10 of them.

1. One of the reasons to use an emergency room for chest pain and heart attacks is due to the fact that there you will find an electrocardiogram, EKG, which will help in the diagnosis of the heart attack. The EKG also allows staff to monitor and watch your heart’s activities which is important to ensure that the situation doesn’t get worse for you. The procedure to connect you to the EKG is painless which is something we feel needs to be said.
2. Another reason to use an emergency room for chest pain and heart attacks is due to the fact that they have the facilities to perform the requisite blood tests to diagnose a heart attack if the EKG turns out to be insufficient. This tests, as is discussed in detail over at the excellent frontlineer.com, check for troponin which is a protein that rises in the blood in response to heart muscle damage and as such help in diagnosing of heart attacks.
3. The ER is also where you can have a nuclear perfusion test performed to diagnose a heart attack if you are having chest pain. This test involves the injection of a radioactive substance or a tracer into a vein which then travels through your body to your heart and you can then watch a detailed image of the blood flow to your heart through a computer. Such facilities are only available in an emergency room.
4. Other than the above diagnostic tests and facilities, another reason to use an emergency room for chest pain and heart attacks is due to the fact that they also have other imaging diagnostic tests if necessary. This includes x-rays to check for other causes of your chest pain such as pneumonia or heart failure, CTA scans among others, all of which will help in diagnosis and all of which are covered in detail over at frontlineer.com.
5. Emergency rooms also have the facilities to have an IV line put in, which is something that comes in handy for patients of heart attacks. This is because these IV lines not only allow staff to administer medicine, they also enable them to take blood samples fi and when needed for more tests.
6. In an emergency room is also the only place that has all the medications required for treatment if your chest pain is as a result of a heart attack. These medications include aspirin, nitroglycerin, heparin among others and they help prevent blood clots from forming while preventing any existing clots from getting any bigger. Emergency rooms also have clot-busting medications, which as per the gurus over at frontlineer.com, help dissolve existing clots. There are also other drugs that are administered to widen the blood vessels which helps reduce your heart’s work load and hence reduce pain and anxiety.
7. Given that heart attacks happen when blood is blocked form flowing to the heart, depriving it of oxygen, the fact that emergency rooms have facilities to administer oxygen is yet another reason to use them for chest pain and heart attacks. This enables the heart and body get enough oxygen.
8. Yet another reason to use an emergency room for chest pain and heart attacks is due to the fact that emergency rooms have facilities to perform surgery when required. This allows for a number of procedures to be carried out, including the placement of stents which restore blood flow to the heart and are done in a special room called the catheterization lab, as is discussed in detail over at frontlineer.com.
9. Another reason to use an emergency room for chest pain and heart attack is not only due to the fact that it has all the requisite facilities, equipment and medication to deal with such a situation, it also has qualified staff and specialists that are well placed to save your life. This enables them to stabilize you and then monitor and take care of you as you recover.
10. Given that emergency rooms are open 24/7 is yet another reason to use them for chest pain and heart attacks. Chest pain and heart attacks occur at any time without warning and if it is late at night, you can be sure that an emergency room will still be open no matter the time.

While chest pain may not always be as a result of a heart attack, heading over to an emergency room allows for a heart attack to be ruled out or in as well as for treatment to be administer, with frontlineer.com being the best place to visit of them all due to the quality of service there as well as the highly skilled and experienced staff and specialists there.