Some illnesses do require all the technology and personnel that can be found at the hospital emergency department.  IF YOU ARE HAVING SEVERE DIFFICULTY BREATHING, OR ARE CONCERNED THAT YOU MIGHT BE HAVING A HEART ATTACK, STROKE, OR OTHER LIFE-THREATENING ILLNESS, PLEASE CALL 911 AND GO TO THE NEAREST HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT.

If you have any of the following symptoms, we suggest you seek treatment at the Emergency Department:

• Chest pain, without known injury to chest, in patients over age 35.
• Severe or sudden onset difficulty breathing.
• Any difficulty breathing, if over age 40 and no previous history of asthma or COPD.
• Severe or sudden onset abdominal pain.
• Vomiting blood, except when bloody vomiting follows several episodes of non-bloody vomiting.
• Sudden onset severe headache.
• Loss of strength, coordination, or sensation of one side of the body.
• Sudden inability to walk, speak, think, or see normally.
• Seizures/convulsions.
• Loss of consciousness or fainting, if over age 35.
• Pregnancy with sudden or severe abdominal pain, or vaginal discharge or bleeding.

Although the following conditions may not necessitate an Emergency Department visit, the nature of our practice renders us unable to treat:

• gynecologic complaints
• recurrent painful conditions (migraines, chronic back pain, chronic abdominal pain) that have only been treatable by injected opiate medication in the past