Medicine: Lukas and the stumbling heart

Friends, some of my patients' parents, or even colleagues often ask me what exactly the difference is between an emergency doctor and a pediatric emergency doctor. The easiest way to explain this is with examples like the ones in this column, starting with Lukas, a six-year-old boy, for whom the dispatch center called me. You have to understand that things get really serious when the dispatch center requests a pediatric ambulance even though an adult emergency doctor is already on site. As was the case with Lukas.