Are You Prepared for a Medical Emergency?
I recently ran across an article about what to do to prepare for a natural disaster. Since my mother used to work on disasters, such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, we were painfully aware of keeping water, blankets and a few other things in the car and a full emergency kit including canned goods, water, flashlights, battery operated radios and more in the house.
One of the things that the article said – and, yes, my mother says and does – is to have a medical emergency kit available at all times. We are not talking about a first aid kit. That goes with all the stuff in the car and in the house in case of a disaster or other kind of emergency, including medical.
The emergency medical kits we are talking about is a container or file that has insurance coverage information including your health insurance company policy number, Medicaid or Medicare policy numbers, a list of your medicine with prescription numbers and dosages, your doctors phone number, a copy of your medical history from your doctor (you can usually get a copy for free), and names and contact information for family or friends and your doctor. Just in case, you might want a change of clothes in an overnight bag, as well.
We all have a tendency to think in terms of other people having the emergencies and if we think of ourselves, we think it probably won’t happen. Even if we have diabetes or high blood pressure, or other conditions which could lead to serious complications, we don’t usually have things prepared in advance. Why is that? For one reason, who wants to think of having an attack of some sort and having to go into the hospital? None of us.
It is important, though, and could be life-saving, to have a kit, if not, your paperwork as discussed above. Often in a rush into the hospital, we are disoriented, even if we are not in the middle of something as serious as a heart attack, we are, after all, in the hospital and usually worried, frightened, stressed or all three.
So, help yourself and help the friends or family that will be there to take you to the hospital, as well as the doctors and nurses who will be treating you and trying to help you. If you haven’t prepared yet, take the time to do it right away. It could save your life.
