Drama at the Emergency Room

ER or Emergency Room is the longest-running primetime medical drama series of all time with 14 seasons to boot. Aside from its impressive cast, the show's success may be attributed to the many stories that can be cooked up inside a hospital's emergency room. After all, in real life, the emergency room is really where all the drama is. The show has never run out of interesting stories to tell because in real life, there is an infinite number of emergencies. An emergency can happen anywhere, anytime in any way.

An emergency is any situation that poses an immediate risk to life, health, environment or property. Generally an emergency requires urgent attention and intervention to prevent the situation from worsening. Although there are countless of emergencies out there, they are classified into four major types.

In ER, most of the emergencies tackled are those that involve dangers to the human life. Have you ever wondered why some of the most successful drama programs on TV are set in a hospital? This is because the hospital, especially the emergency room is full of drama. There is nothing more dramatic than death. It follows the very popular school of thought that nothing can be more important than human life. Dangers to life vary widely from emergencies affecting a single person to incidents affecting a large number of people. It can range from a heart attack to a group of victims of a fire or an earthquake. Dangers to life are considered the highest priority of emergency.

Although some emergencies do not really pose certain danger to human life, they might have serious health implications. Thus they also need urgent attention, which is often medical, because they can eventually escalate to be life-threatening. Health emergencies are usually caused by emergencies threatening to life such as natural disasters and medical emergencies. These include broken limbs and fractures. They may not lead to death but they can lead to disabilities.

Some emergencies directly affect our natural environment and the creatures inhabiting it. Although some agencies do not consider these to be genuine emergencies, they can eventually pose danger to human life and health. Oil spills and wild fires are considered environmental emergencies.

Dangers to property do not necessarily threaten human life. However, they can affect people's lives tremendously --- particularly their livelihood. For example, a fire in a factory can damage so much property that they may cause enough damage to the business and livelihood of the employees. These emergencies are considered the lowest priority but they must still be dealt with appropriately because they can also threaten human life.

It is obvious that human life is what our society values the most. Dangers to health, environment and property are considered alarming and critical when they begin to threaten human life. Every danger to life needs medical attention. No matter how you look at it, when it comes to emergencies, all roads lead to the ER.