Abstract
This column presents the case of a 30-year-old man seeking care for upper back pain at a freestanding emergency center. His occupation involved carrying 50-lb buckets of chemicals up ladders to the rooftops of industrial buildings. Back pain is a common complaint in emergency departments and most often musculoskeletal in nature. In this case, the back pain was not musculoskeletal but resulted from bilateral pulmonary emboli. The patient did not know that he had Factor V Leiden disorder. This column emphasizes the importance of ruling out serious life-threatening conditions in patients who present with common complaints and no traditional red flag symptoms.