A 

medical emergency is an injury or illness that is acute and poses an immediate risk to a

person's life or long term health. These emergencies may require assistance from another
person, who should ideally be suitably qualified to do so, although some of these emergencies
can be dealt with by the victim themselves. Dependent on the severity of the emergency, and
the quality of any treatment given, it may require the involvement of multiple levels of care, from
a first aider to an emergency physician through to specialist surgeons.

Any response to an emergency medical situation will depend strongly on the situation,
the patient involved and availability of resources to help them. It will also vary depending on
whether the emergency occurs whilst in hospital under medical care, or outside of medical care
(for instance, in the street or alone at home).

Response
For emergencies starting outside of medical care, a key component of providing proper care is
to summon the emergency medical services (usually an ambulance), by calling for helpusing the
appropriate local emergency telephone number, such as 999, 911, 111, 112 or 000. After
determining that the incident is a medical emergency (as opposed to, for example, a police call),
the emergency dispatchers will generally run through a questioning system such as AMPDS in
order to assess the priority level of the call, along with the caller's name and location.

Those trained to perform first aid can act within the bounds of the knowledge they have, whilst
awaiting the next level of definitive care. Those who are not able to perform first aid can also
assist by remaining calm and staying with the injured or ill person. A common complaint of
emergency service personnel is the propensity of people to crowd around the scene of victim,
as it is generally unhelpful, making the patient more stressed, and obstructing the smooth
working of the emergency services. If possible, first responders should designate a specific
person to ensure that the emergency services are called. Another bystander should be sent to
wait for their arrival and direct them to the proper location. Additional bystanders can be helpful
in ensuring that crowds are moved away from the ill or injured patient, allowing the responder
adequate space to work.

Many states of the USA have "Good Samaritan laws" which protect civilian responders who
choose to assist in an emergency.[1] Responders acting within the scope of their knowledge and
training as a "reasonable person" in the same situation would act are often immune to liability in
emergency situations. Usually, once care has begun, a first responder or first aid provider may
not leave the patient or terminate care until a responder of equal or higher training (e.g., fire
department or emergency medical technicians) assumes care. This can constitute
abandonment of the patient, and may subject the responder to legal liability. Care must be
continued until the patient is transferred to a higher level of care, the situation becomes too
unsafe to continue, or the responder is physically unable to continue due to exhaustion or
hazards.

The principles of the chain of survival apply to medical emergencies where the patient has an
absence of breathing and heartbeat. This involves the four stages of Early
access, EarlyCPR, Early defibrillation and Early advanced life support

Unless the situation is particularly hazardous, and is likely to further endanger the
patient, evacuating an injured victim requires special skills, and should be left to the
professionals of the emergency medical and fire service.

Clinical response
Within hospital settings, an adequate staff is generally present to deal with the average
emergency situation. Emergency medicine physicians have training to deal with most medical
emergencies, and maintain CPR and ACLS certifications. In disasters or complex emergencies,
most hospitals have protocols to summon on-site and off-site staff rapidly.

Both emergency room and inpatient medical emergencies follow the basic protocol of Advanced
Cardiac Life Support. Irrespective of the nature of the emergency, adequate blood
pressure and oxygenation are required before the cause of the emergency can be eliminated.
Possible exceptions include the clamping of arteries in severe hemorrhage.[citation needed]

Non-trauma emergencies
While the golden hour (medicine) is a trauma treatment concept, two emergency medical
conditions have well-documented time-critical treatment considerations: stroke and myocardial
infarction (heart attack). In the case of stroke, there is a window of three hours within which the
benefit of thrombolytic drugs outweighs the risk of major bleeding. In the case of a heart attack,
rapid stabilization of fatal arrhythmias can prevent sudden cardiac arrest. In addition, there is a
direct relationship between time-to-treatment and the success of reperfusion (restoration of
blood flow to the heart), including a time dependent reduction in the mortality and morbidity.