The doctor recommends staying at rest and answering questions.
Every day in France, several tens of thousands of calls are sent to emergency services. Their mission? Sorting, asking the right questions and assessing the severity of the situation in a few minutes. On the patient’s side, it can be difficult to get the phone and ask for help, for fear of disturbing help or ignorance of the symptoms that must alert. Our emergency doctor guides us to recognize an emergency.
Certain situations make the appeal to 15 obvious: “Loss of knowledge is the first element of gravity “ says Dr. François-Xavier Moronval, emergency doctor. He then insisted on the more discreet signs, often underestimated, such as respiratory discomfort or unexplained chest pain, which do not pass. “In the emergency room, these pain makes us think of the worst. Chest pain and heart problems can come from infarction, pulmonary embolism or aorta dissection.” He also mentions persistent abdominal pain, with or without bleeding, which can reveal “Everything that is rupture of aneurysm and peritonitis”.
For Dr. Moronval “If the symptoms described above do not leave after taking a paracetamol” You have to worry. “”Paracetamol takes 45 minutes to act and is very efficient. If, after the 45 -minute delay, there is no improvement in the symptoms, or even worse, there is a worsening, it is necessary to call the 15 “. Paracetamol is an analgesic drug, it should reduce pain.
During the call to 15, the medical regulator poses several questions to assess the risk factors, including cardiovascular, of the person. “Immediately, the question is to know:” Is he/she is a smoker? “,” Is he/she is overweight? “,” Is he/she does diabetes? “And” Did his parents already had heart problems? “.” The doctor recommends staying at rest and answering questions. Finally, he recalls that the 15 is a free number and “When one wonders if you have to call or not, it is already the sign that you should not hesitate.”
Thank you to Dr François-Xavier Moronval, emergency doctor, author of “emergency profession” (ed.stock) and creator of the YouTube channel “Doc Fx”.
