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Showing posts with the label heart attack

Emergency room

Emergency medical professionals — some do it right and some do it wrong. I met both kinds yesterday. A sharp, escalating pain in my left arm, accompanied by numbness and tingling in my left hand had me on edge about whether or not I was experiencing the onset of a heart attack. Symptoms lingered through the night and into the next day. My apprehension grew. I hedged. I debated. And as I was weighing the pros and cons of getting it all checked out (and paying the bill if it turned out to be a false alarm), I flashed back a few years to my younger brother's near-death experience. He was out for a walk and felt similar symptoms. He walked back home, drove himself to the hospital a few blocks away (bad idea, but the only option at the time) where he received a check over. Shortly after that he was admitted to the ER, where he arrested. Thankfully ER staff and equipment were both close at hand, and he survived, I believe, because of his quick, decisive, cautionary action. So I grudgin...