If you or someone you know is experiencing a medical emergency, dial 314-935-5555.

The Emergency Support Team is intended to be called for any and all medical emergencies that occur within the Danforth campus and within its on-campus dormitories. We respond to all types of medical emergencies, ranging from accidental injuries to cardiac arrests.

When deciding on when to call, it is almost always better to be safe than sorry. Individuals or bystanders should never hesitate to call whenever they are concerned about their own or someone else's health.

To help patients clarify whether they need our services, here is a non-exhaustive list of call categories that we often respond to:

• Trauma/Accidental Injuries (e.g. sports injury, bleeding, fall injury, etc.)
• General illness or sick symptoms (e.g. fever, rash, vomiting, etc.)
• Intoxication emergencies (see further information below)
• Fainting or loss of consciousness
• Abdominal pain or symptoms
• Respiratory distress (e.g. allergic reaction, asthma attack, panic attack, etc.)
• Diabetic emergencies
• Seizures
• General unresponsiveness
• Chest pain or cardiac concerns

Intoxication-related Emergencies:

The line between intoxication, alcohol poisoning, or a drug overdose is difficult to differentiate. Our techs have been taught to identify alcohol and drug-related emergencies through years of training and experience. If you are concerned about an intoxicated friend, it is always safest to call EST rather than letting your friend just "sleep it off." In any case, you nor an intoxicated friend will not get in trouble for calling EST during an intoxication-related emergency per WashU’s medical amnesty policy. Click here to find out more about medical amnesty at WashU.

If you are still in doubt, be alert for the following symptoms, and call immediately if you notice any of them in the intoxicated person.

• Mental confusion
• Inability to wake up intoxicated individual
• Cold or pale skin
• Very slow or irregular breathing
• Uncontrollable or persistent vomiting

Whether or not EST is called, the intoxicated individual will need to be monitored for the next couple of hours. The individual should sleep on their side and should not be given an food or drink (including water) until vomiting subsides. Be alert for the above symptoms.

When calling EST, it would greatly help our techs to have a sober individual/friend with the patient on scene. EST techs can release an intoxicated patient to themselves if our protocol determines it is safe to do so, however it is always more ideal to have a trusted friend nearby.

Under any circumstances:

• DO NOT give any food or drink to sober the individual up. Time is the only thing that can help someone sober up. Furthermore, ingestion of food and drink amidst alcohol poisoning will likely worsen nausea and vomiting.
• DO NOT give an intoxicated person a cold shower. The shock can cause the individual to pass out, or he could fall and injure himself.
• DO NOT give an intoxicated person anything to induce vomiting.
• DO NOT leave an intoxicated person unmonitored if they display the above symptoms