Key takeaways
- Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, one-sided weakness or numbness, trouble speaking, loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion: emergency room now.
- Uncertain whether you are on the line? Treat that as being on it.
- Stiff necks, sore backs, and a foggy week without vomiting or confusion belong in a planned injury exam this week.
- Emergency discharge is the end of the emergency, not the end of the crash. Bring the paperwork to the exam.
- A clinic that sends you to the ER instead of booking you is the system working.
Every page of this Journal carries the same short paragraph about the emergency room, and every page puts it near the bottom, after the advice about planned care. This entry turns that order around. The emergency line comes first here, spelled out, because the most important thing a health desk can do for a reader who just got hit is make sure they are standing on the right side of it.
The bright line
Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic.
That is the whole line. It is short on purpose. None of those symptoms are subtle, none of them are "wait and see," and none of them are what an injury clinic is built for. An injury clinic is built for planned care: exams, findings, written plans, rehab over weeks. An emergency department is built for the hour you are in. If the hour is the problem, go there.
Symptom by symptom
- Chest pain. A seat belt bruise across the chest is common and usually harmless, but chest pain after a crash is not something to sort out at home or in a clinic waiting room. Emergency room.
- A sudden severe headache. Not the dull ache at the base of the skull that comes with a strained neck. A sudden, severe, worst-of-your-life headache. Emergency room.
- Weakness or numbness on one side. An arm or a leg, a side of the face. Emergency room, now.
- Trouble speaking. Slurred words, trouble finding them, trouble understanding them. Emergency room.
- Loss of bowel or bladder control. After a back injury this is a sign that needs immediate evaluation. Emergency room.
- A head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion. A foggy week is a clinic matter. Vomiting or confusion that is getting worse is not. Emergency room.
If you are unsure whether you are on the line, treat that uncertainty as being on it. The cost of an unneeded emergency visit is a long evening. The cost of a needed one that did not happen is not comparable.
The other side of the line
Most crash injuries around Kirkwood are on the planned-care side. A neck that stiffens overnight and hurts by day three. A low back that complains when you stand up from the desk. A week of fog without vomiting or confusion. A shoulder that gripped the wheel. These are exactly what an injury exam is for, and the reason to have it this week rather than this season is the same reason given everywhere else on this site: a dated starting point makes the rest of the recovery measurable. The Journal's three days later essay explains why these injuries arrive late, and the week after the wreck walks through what to do with them.
Both answers are correct at the same time. The ER for the hour you are in, the exam for the week you are about to have.
After the emergency room
Being discharged from an emergency department is not the end of a crash. It is the end of the emergency. Emergency physicians are very good at ruling out the things that kill people tonight and are not in the business of managing a six-week neck. If you were seen, cleared, and sent home with instructions to follow up, the follow-up is the injury exam. Bring the discharge paperwork. It becomes part of the record, and it tells the examiner what has already been ruled out.
If a clinic sends you to the emergency room
Sometimes the order runs the other way. A reader calls the clinic, describes something on the wrong side of the line, and is told to go to the emergency room instead of being booked. That is the system working, not a wasted call. A clinic that recognizes its own limits is the kind you want examining you the following week.
Where the clinic is, for the week after
Missouri Injury Clinic's Tesson Ferry room is at 11144 Tesson Ferry Road, Suite 200, Saint Louis, MO 63123, about fifteen minutes from downtown Kirkwood down Lindbergh, phone (314) 530-5480. Its published lanes are auto injuries with diagnosis and a treatment plan, TBI and concussion rehab, and sports injuries. It closes from 12 to 2 daily. The rooms entry lists Hazelwood and O'Fallon as well.
The one action
Past the line? Then get examined this week.
Once the emergency is ruled out, the week still needs handling. Call the Tesson Ferry room, bring any discharge paperwork, and ask for an exam.
Tesson Ferry room · 11144 Tesson Ferry Rd, Suite 200
Mon to Thu 9 to 6, Fri 9 to 12, closed 12 to 2
The emergency line, first. Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic.
Advertising disclosure. This page is advertising. This desk is compensated for featuring Missouri Injury Clinic, and it is not the clinic, not a law office, and not a party to anyone's insurance claim. We publish only the lanes, rooms, and hours the clinic publishes on moinjuryclinic.com. We do not write reviews, rank providers, or give medical or legal advice.
Educational reading. Not medical advice, not a diagnosis. The Journal cannot examine anyone.