So very true. ER docs assume the worst, and then move on the less severe diagnoses:
The correlate of this emergency paranoia is that you, the patient, will get poked and prodded much more than you would if you just went to your outpatient doctor. Your stomach ache isn’t just a stomach ache in the ED; it could be a heart attack, an aortic dissection, pancreatitis, a kidney stone, or an early appendicitis. (And this isn’Â’t just exaggeration on the part of the ED – there’s many people who have heart attacks who don’t have the classic “crushing chest pain.”)
