Cautionary Tale: How to Prepare for a Medical Emergency

In a medical emergency, a second’s action can make the difference between life and death.

Sometimes, you simply cannot expect the situation to go awry, or anticipate accidents the way you would in sports or reckless driving.

Perhaps you go out of your way to ensure that you and your loved ones never fall prey to such calamities — steering clear of activities that pose the slightest danger.

Despite your countless attempts to remain cautious, however, it’s worth remembering that everyone is prone to accidents.

You could be standing in your kitchen, innocently chopping vegetables for a healthy salad, suddenly looking down upon a sliced index finger.

Your son could be adhering to your instructions and wearing his helmet while riding his bicycle to school. But in case he falls down, he’s still likely to bruise his elbow and knee.

The fact of the matter is that you simply cannot accident-proof your life or the lives of your family. There’s no point worrying about hypothetical scenarios that may or may not occur, turning your concerns into neurotic fear-mongering episodes. At the same time, however, that certainly does not mean you should turn a blind eye to the possibility of an accident.

Exercising Caution

The best way to deal with an emergency is to be prepared! Unfortunately, you’re not blessed with the gift of foresight and can’t predict an accident. What you can do, is take small steps that enable you to attend to a range of medical emergencies. Here are a few to begin with:

1. Stay Calm! Remaining calm during a medical emergency can actually aid the process of recovery, according to education expert Dr. Gail Gross. When your body is under stress, it experiences a fight-or-flight mode — and relaxing the injured can reduce stress levels, making the body less reactive and ending the overproduction of stress hormone, cortisol.
2. Prepare a first-aid kit; Adhesive bandages, cotton-tipped swabs, ice-packs, clean towels and antiseptic ointment — these are just a few of the items that can help in any event that calls for urgent care.
3. Keep an emergency contact list; Doctor, spouse, legal guardian, close friends and members of your family — depending on the context of the emergency, you should have a few numbers on stand-by just to save time.

If you wish to go the extra mile to ensure you’re always prepared for unpredictable medical emergencies, act decisively and choose an urgent care Dallas TX facility that won’t keep you waiting. 

Frontline ER is a Texas-based 24 hr urgent care clinic, fully equipped to tend to any and all emergencies.

Call us at (214) 499-9555 for services in Dallas, and keep medical aid on your finger-tips throughout the day!

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All You Need To Know About Respiratory Problems

Respiratory ailments are increasing at an alarming rate among urban dwellers. Especially in developing countries, almost one-fifth to one-fourth of the human population suffers from one or the other kind of respiratory ailment. There has been a lot of research to find out the factors behind the sudden rise of respiratory ailments in the last few years. Most researches hint at the rising levels of pollution in the air. Several reports have indicated that the quality of air in countries like China, India, Brazil and Indonesia has worsened a lot with the proportion of harmful precipitate in the air reaching dangerous levels. Needless to say, these are the nations which are home to a large number of people, in fact, one-third of the global population. All these nations are rapidly growing economies which heavily depend on industries as well as vehicular fossil fuels. This is exactly the reason why any measure to curb air pollution is not being as effective as it should be.

The worst thing in these nations is that there is very little awareness among the people regarding respiratory ailments. If you do a survey, you will be startled to find out that just a meager proportion of the population actually knows what COPD is, even though they might be actually suffering from it. COPD or chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a lung disorder which results in acute breathlessness. The most remarkable characteristic of COPD is that it worsens with age. Many people do not take this disease seriously as they believe that it is a normal occurrence due to ageing. However, with healthy living and initiation of treatment with early discovery of COPD, it can be managed effectively.

Another significant factor behind the abundance of instances of respiratory problems among the populations of developing countries is the bad habit of smoking. Tobacco is extensively consumed in developing countries. Although the governments are trying to curb chewing tobacco usage in the society, smoking in the form of beady rolls and cigarettes is not showing any sign of decreasing. Smoking increases the vulnerability to respiratory ailments manifold. If you want to avoid such diseases, you must refrain from smoking at any cost.

However, there are certain respiratory ailments which are hereditary in nature. Even though you refrain from smoke and exposure to pollution, you might acquire those problems. Asthma is one such respiratory issue. Now, the question which bothers most people is how to cure asthma. One thing which is quite unfortunate is that asthma is not completely curable. But, you can definitely manage the intensity of asthma attacks to a great extent with certain therapies.

                                 

Author’s Bio: Dr. Avni Deshmukh is an expert medical consultant in Mumbai (India) and a writer for various blogs about symptoms, cure of Asthma, Cough and respiratory problems etc. for adults and children.

Twitter ID: @AvniDeshmukh 

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