The two-minute warning is called in the last two minutes of the first and second half of American football. When somebody is brought to an ER with an acute problem like a heart attack, it is very similar to the last two minutes of the fourth quarter of football, and your team is behind by thirty points.
That 2-minute warning is announced when you start to have that crushing chest pain, and you’re short of breath, sweating bullets, and vomiting.
911 gets called, and then a chain of events starts.
The ambulance, police, and the fire department will be dispatched to your doorstep. The ambulance crew may be volunteers who can provide Basic Life Support (BLS) like Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) or chest compressions in case you are in cardiac arrest.
The team that gets there first will then apply the Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). It will assess your heart rhythm and will shock you as needed with enough electricity to make your heart stop for a split second and hopefully resume a normal heart rhythm.
Once you are loaded in the ambulance, the lights and sirens are turned on. Hopefully, other motorists will cooperate and give way. The medical facility that you go to will be the most appropriate place for the condition you’re in. This means, if the patient is in cardiac arrest, the nearest hospital will do. If you are relatively stable, then you will be brought to a cardiac center.
On the way there, the medics will call the ER and give a report to a physician. The EKG will be sent electronically if it’s suspected that a heart attack is happening. Then, the cardiac catheterization staff and Interventional cardiologist will be alerted. Once the ambulance arrives, the ER doctor, nurses, aides, techs, and registration staff will be ready.
If the patient is awake, it can be very confusing and scary. You will be answering these questions. Large needles will be inserted in both arms, your arm squeezed tightly by the BP cuff, hear all these medical terms, and decide to consent to a treatment that, that can have a complication. Even death. All of this happening in a freezing room, semi-naked, wearing a thin gown that is open at the back.
If the patient dies, your team lost. If you survive the acute phase and gets admitted to the hospital, then the game goes to overtime. The overtime period can be short or long.
Lots of gears have to click, and many stars have to align in a short period to survive and recover from this acute process.
In playing a game, one plays to win right from the beginning. Nobody wants to be behind 30 points, especially at the two-minute warning. You want to be ahead. it is better to prevent ischemic heart disease from starting. It is the number 1 cause of death in the whole world.
So what’s the game plan? Get rid of hyperinsulinemia, lower that blood sugar and blood pressure, lose that belly. Start fasting! Avoid refined sugar. Eat more greens. Get a clearance from your doctor to do high-intensity exercises and lift weights. Then you will feel lighter, better, stronger, and smarter. Yes. All of this can happen.
Related Readings:
The Complete Series of “How to Prepare for that Unplanned Emergency Room Visit”
- Part 1 talks about why preparation is needed for an emergency room visit
- Part 2 lists the most essential medical information to bring to the emergency room.
- Part 3 describes the other medical information that are also important.
- Part 4 enumerates the different ways to carry medical information
- Part 5 lists all the needed medical information in a shortlist that can be copied and pasted to a word processing app ready to be filled.
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