Domestic emergencies

Definition

Domestic emergencies are sudden situations in a domestic environment that require immediate medical attention because of the danger to the health or life of the patient.

General information

Domestic emergencies include a variety of accidents and dangerous situations that occur in the home environment and require immediate medical attention. Important are scalds and burns, which can be caused by fireplaces, ovens or spilled cooking water. But injuries caused by sharp or pointed kitchen instruments can also lead to a domestic emergency.

In case of burns and scalds, immediate cooling is urgently required. If the skin over the area is closed, you can cool with running water. If the injuries are open, a sterile dressing must be applied and an ice pack placed on top.

Bleeding injuries must be brought to a halt, possibly by applying pressure. Falls also occur frequently at home, especially among older people. The feared consequence is a fracture of the neck of the femur, which can lead not only to heavy bleeding but also to complicated treatment procedures in the subsequent hospital treatment.

It is important to clarify the cause of the fall. If the patient can no longer remember the procedure, unconsciousness caused by a seizure or circulatory problems must be assumed. In this case, a CT of the head to rule out cerebral haemorrhages and an ultrasound of the vessels to rule out the circulatory disturbances are ordered.

Cardiac arrhythmia can also lead to unconsciousness with associated falls. For this reason an ECG should always be written. Electrical accidents are also frequent, but most of them are minor and do not cause dangerous cardiac arrhythmias or burns.

Poisoning and drowning usually occur in households with small children. Particularly unsupervised children or environments with unsecured garden ponds and accessible household or medicine cabinets pose a great danger. With 4500 drowning accidents in Germany per year it is a relatively frequent cause of accidents.

Poisoning must be treated immediately at the clinic either by vomiting, by pumping out the stomach or by haemodialysis. Even after drowning accidents and immediately initiated first aid measures, the child must be taken to the clinic for monitoring. Another domestic emergency is swallowing or suffocation.

Particularly large bites swallowed in a hurry can obstruct the oesophagus (bolus death) or trachea and sometimes lead to acute and life-threatening situations. If the Heimlich handle fails, the patient should be ventilated to deliver the bolus further into the lungs. Cardiac massage offers the last chance.

In general, it should be noted that in domestic emergencies, the patient should be kept calm and talked to calmly. The emergency physician, who should be contacted by calling 112, should be asked the question: What happened?, where did it happen? how many people are involved?

calmly, briefly and concisely answered. It is important to give the exact address without which no emergency doctor can be called out. Domestic emergencies occur frequently every day in Germany. However, very few of them make an emergency doctor’s intervention necessary. Especially drowning accidents unfortunately have a relatively poor survival rate, because the patients are often discovered too late.