It’s not easy to know if your child is experiencing a true emergency. This is perfectly normal. Besides a major trauma, you may not know the difference between an emergency medical situation and a condition that can be treated by your child’s regular pediatrician.

If you think your child is experiencing a life-threatening medical trauma, call 911 or immediately bring your child to the Rainbow Emergency Department.
Your child will receive the best care here—emergency or not.

Below are some of the most common reasons you may want to call 911 or bring your child to Rainbow’s emergency room. If you think your child’s situation could turn life threatening before you’re able to drive to the hospital, call 911.

• Sharp or sudden severe pain of any kind
• Strong feeling of pain or pressure in the upper abdomen
• Loss of consciousness or fainting
• Suddenly feeling dizzy or weak or noticing a dramatic change in vision
• Seizures or convulsions
• In infants, either a bulging soft spot or an unusually caved-in soft spot

Bleeding, Wounds

• Puncture wounds or deep wounds
• Wounds to the head or hands
• Large wound with edges that will not come together
• Continuous bleeding even after applying pressure for 15 minutes
• Trauma or injury to the head
• Amputation of any kind – finger, toe or any limb
• Any bite that breaks the skin, whether from an animal or another person
• Continuous vomiting or vomiting blood
• Continuous diarrhea or blood in stools

Burns

• Burned skin that is more than two or three inches across
• Burned skin on hands, feet, face, a major joint, or in the groin area

Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth, Throat

• Foreign object in the eyes, nose or ears that will not come out easily
• Any type of eye injury
• Tooth that has been knocked out
• Severe throat swelling

Emotional Symptoms

• Suicidal feelings, talk of suicide plans
• Feeling extremely restless or irritable
• Sudden mental confusion or difficulty waking up

Movement Problems

• Partial paralysis – being unable to move part of the body
• Difficulty with movement or feeling after any type of injury
• Shoulder dislocation or any other joint you can see is out of place
• Broken bone – or if you think a bone may be broken
• Neck or spine injury
• Neck stiffness that’s accompanied by a fever or headache

Trouble Breathing, Poisoning

• Difficulty breathing or feeling short of breath
• Poisoning – look for burns or red areas around mouth and lips, or breath that smells like chemicals or gasoline

Unusual Body Temperature

• Temperature higher than 104 F, or higher than 101 F for three days or longer
• Temperature higher than 100.5 F in infants younger than 3 months
• Hypothermia – if body temperature drops below 94 F