John woke up out of a deep sleep with excruciating pain.  "What in the world is wrong with me?" he asked himself.  "Should I call an ambulance or just drive to the emergency room?"  He continued his mental debate, "Maybe I should wait it out in case it is an upset stomach or even the flu."  John lay in his queen-size bed listening to the subtle night sounds outside his second-floor bedroom window trying to isolate where the pain was and how severe it had become.

Trying to remember everything he had ever read about medical conditions, John determined that the pain was isolated in the upper quadrant of his abdomen.  Penetrating from the front and extending through the back was a thin, red hot spear of pain of no less than an intensity of 8.  Turning on the side, curling into a fetal position, or even sitting up did nothing to relieve the pain.
"Maybe this is a gall bladder attack," he wondered remembering that his brother described a similar incident a few years ago.

Frustrated with the lack of sleep and continual pain of more than an hour, John decided to go to the emergency room at the McGee Medical Facility, a local hospital approximately ten minutes from his house.
Proceed with admission to emergency room.
 
 

Informed Consent Case Study
Dr. Nada Dabbagh
1999-2001