When to Seek Medical Care

• Call your doctor after any significant physical trauma.
  
  
• Call your doctor also if you cannot control external bleeding with simple pressure.
  
  
  • Because you may have internal as well external bleeding, always err on the side of safety and call your doctor.
    
    
  • Be particularly concerned about bleeding into your joints or your central nervous system because of long-term complications and the possibility of death.
  
  
• Because hemophilia treatment involves blood products, you often may need to be treated in an emergency department or other health care facility, especially if you have severe hemophilia.
  
  
• Your doctor should evaluate any head or spinal trauma.
  
  
• A severe hemophiliac should be evaluated at a hospital's emergency department for any bleeding whatsoever, because his or her blood will not clot adequately on its own in these situations:
  
  
  • Oral bleeding
    
    
  • Bleeding from skin that does not stop with simple pressure
    
    
  • Bleeding from muscles and joints
  
  
• Any person with hemophilia who has significant trauma anywhere on the body should be evaluated at a hospital regardless of the severity of the disease.