Brain & Nervous System Health Center
Living With a Spinal Cord Injury - When to Call a Doctor
There may be a time when you have a medical emergency and need to contact a health professional.
Be prepared to call your SCI therapist,911, or other emergency services if you or the person with the spinal cord injury (SCI) has the symptoms of autonomic dysreflexia, a syndrome characterized by a sudden onset of excessively high blood pressure. If you or a caregiver do not treat it promptly and correctly, it may lead to seizures, stroke, and even death. Symptoms include:
- A pounding headache.
- A flushed face and/or red blotches on the skin above the level of spinal injury.
- Sweating above the level of spinal injury.
- Nasal stuffiness.
- Nausea.
- A slow heart rate (bradycardia).
- Goose bumps below the level of spinal injury.
- Cold, clammy skin below the level of spinal injury.
Call 911or other emergency services if you fall or have another accident where you hit yourself severely (trauma) and you notice:
- Swelling on a part of your body where you have no feeling or movement.
- Increased muscle spasms or other signs of spasticity.
Call your health professional immediately if you have symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI). These include:
- Fever and chills.
- Nausea and vomiting.
- Headache.
- Reddish or pinkish urine.
- Foul-smelling urine.
- Cloudy urine.
- Increased muscle spasms or other signs of spasticity.
Depending on your level of injury, you may also feel burning while urinating, and/or pain or discomfort in the lower pelvic area, abdomen, or lower back.
Call your health professional immediately if you have the symptoms of pneumonia. These include:
- Fever of 100F to 106F.
- Shaking chills.
- Cough that often produces colored mucus from the lungs. Mucus may be rust-colored or green or tinged with blood. Older adults may have only a slight cough and no mucus.
- Rapid, often shallow, breathing.
- Chest wall pain, often made worse by coughing or deep breathing.
- Fatigue and feelings of weakness (malaise).
- Increased muscle spasms or other signs of spasticity.
Call your health professional for an appointment if you have a pressure sore and:
- The skin is broken.
- The sore has increased in size or is draining more.
- It has increased in redness, or black areas are starting to form.
- It starts to smell bad, and/or the drainage becomes a greenish color.
- You develop a fever.
WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise



