I’ve been thinking today that one of the most valuable things we can do in a potential survival situation is to actually make the decision to call for help. Whether someone is embarrassed to admit they’re lost, or worried about the cost of the ambulance ride, often the impulse to “tough it out” or “go it alone” turns an unfortunate situation into a dire one.

This morning at 5am I was awoken by my pager going off for an EMS call. We arrived at the scene to find a 79 year old man complaining of severe abdominal pain. He had a history of a small abdominal aneurism that his doctor had recommended monitoring closely over time.

For those of you who do not know, when abdominal aortic aneurisms rupture it is a true medical emergency. This patient had all the classic signs – extreme pain, a pulsating mass in his abdomen, and a falling blood pressure. The fact is that even though my patient was completely lucid and in full control of all his faculties, there was a distinct and real chance that he was going to die.

As we quickly loaded him onto our ambulance to try and get him to an operating room ASAP, I asked him how long he had been in severe pain. His answer broke my heart: “Since about midnight. I haven’t been able to sleep at all.” That’s five hours during which he could have sought treatment for a life-threatening ailment, but he did not, because he did not want to inconvenience anyone in the middle of the night.

Folks, if you’re in extreme pain, and it hasn’t gone away on it’s own relatively quickly, it’s probably not going to go away. It’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. I learned this lesson myself six weeks ago when I suffered needlessly for several hours before going to the hospital with what turned out to be a kidney stone causing the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.

I know a lot of discussion on this board focuses on folks who needlessly tie up resources by initiating rescues for less-than-good reasons. I wanted to use my experience this morning to remind us all that it’s OK to call for help when you need it.

Most rescuers do what they do because they want to help people, and we accept that there will be a certain number of “over-reaction alarms.” If it turns out that my patient actually was suffering from severe indigestion, I will not hold it against him at all.

Stay safe.