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Flights - Shaken
Air Care Orientation Curriculum Jeffery Hill, MD M.Ed Air Care Orientation Curriculum Jeffery Hill, MD M.Ed

Flights - Shaken

You are sitting on the helipad during your UH shift talking with the flight nurse when the tones drop for a pediatric scene call.  You gather yourself after you have that crap your pants moment that everyone has with pediatric scene calls and whip out your smart phone with your pediatric application of choice.  You begin to write down doses and sizes on your tape on your leg based on the report of the patient’s weight from the providers on scene.

You land in an elementary school parking lot to the delight of the children at the local school.  Cars begin to slow and pull over as you exit the helicopter and walk to the squad.  You walk to the side door of the ambulance and find 6 EMTs crammed in the squad.

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A Pain in My Heart - Curated Comments and Expert Commentary
Air Care Orientation Curriculum, Prehospital Medicine Jeffery Hill, MD M.Ed Air Care Orientation Curriculum, Prehospital Medicine Jeffery Hill, MD M.Ed

A Pain in My Heart - Curated Comments and Expert Commentary

Thanks to everybody who chimed in on our last "Flight"! We had a great discussion on the management of the STEMI transfer patient.  These aren't just "milk runs" as pointed out by Dr. Hinckley.  The highlights of the discussion are below with additional commentary on the case by Dr. Bill Hinckley and Air Care Resident Assistant Medical Director Dr. Matt Chinn.  Out final flight will be lifting off June 1 and it's a doozy - looking forward to the discussion!

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Field Amputation
Procedural Education, Prehospital Medicine, Air Care Orientation Curriculum Andrew Latimer, MD Procedural Education, Prehospital Medicine, Air Care Orientation Curriculum Andrew Latimer, MD

Field Amputation

Hey, everybody! Today we are going to talk about field limb amputation.

I know what you are all thinking… No, I’m not crazy. Yes, you’ll probably never do one. No, this is not a common procedure. You just might, however, be in a situation on Air Care where knowing how to correctly perform this procedure can safe a life. 

First, let’s provide a little background on the pre-hospital limb amputation. The procedure itself has gained much more press in the FOAMed world and the emergency medicine and pre-hospital literature since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti during which early physician responders were faced with large numbers of patients trapped under debris and few responders with familiarity or basic working knowledge of the procedure (Lorich et al, 2010). A few of case reports and articles surfaced around this time and the field amp even made an appearance in an episode of the popular television show ‘Greys Anatomy’ in 2011. 

So I was told… 

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