So, here you are, its 3 am and you re on a call in the ER, and they wheel in this agitated young man, profusely sweating, clutching at his chest, complaining of chest pain After a moment of panic, you ask for an ECG from your nursing colleague, the next couple of seconds pass in gut-wrenching panic, your senior is nowhere to be found, and you have nowhere to run. There you go, there s that harmless-looking strip of paper in your sweaty palms, your colleague s looking at you hopefully, the patient s looking at you for a brilliant diagnosis And the rest as they say.. is history. A rather familiar scenario for those of us who ve chosen to spend our careers toiling away in the ER, and an experience that just about every resident has at some point of their training period. ECG s can be intimidating, let s be honest here, we re clueless most of the time relying on our colleagues, experience or god forbid, the internet during desperate times. These harmless-looking strips of paper can stump the smartest of us and making things worse, there isn t a lot of reference material that can help us when all we need is some quick guidance on how best to identify a true ECG emergency! Don t get me wrong, there are quite a few brilliant books on ECG interpretation, that are well worth reading if you have the time, Time being the operative word here. This is where my humble effort comes in, On the basics of an ECG for an ER Medic. Now, I do not claim to have foolproof information nor do I claim to have covered every emergency there is, However, this book strives to simply guide you, and show you what to look for in an ECG during your hour of need, Happy Reading!!