Each year, hundreds of thousands of patients come to the ER experiencing life threatening events such as possible carbon monoxide poisoning or heart attacks, attending doctors in a medical institution rely on the current standard blood gas analyzers to diagnose the oxygen-carrying capabilities of blood, blood gases and electrolytes. Normally, these type of tests are taken with an arterial blood sample (typically an artery in the arm), and are then sent off to a central lab, where a bench top unit uses spectroscopy and electrochemical sensor measurements to provide results. It can take hours to get the results.