Opinion: In our ER, it's more common to care for victims of gun violence than patients with heart attacks

In the emergency room, actual emergencies are rare. A terrible headache, a broken bone, or sudden chest pain may represent serious health problems for our patients, but they are unfortunately routine for physicians. Certain words however — “cardiac arrest”, “code call”, “respiratory distress” — heard overhead on the EMS haste system, or yelled from a patient’s room, catch our immediate attention. Those words change our mindset and drive our actions. Our team immediately drops everything and shifts all resources to assessing and addressing the emergency.