Tamingthesru

Prehospital Medicine Justin Benoit, MD Prehospital Medicine Justin Benoit, MD

Endotracheal Intubation vs. Supraglottic Airway Placement for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

If you want to get a group of prehospital providers riled up, simply ask them how the airway should be managed during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.  "Supraglottic airways are easier!"  "No, you gotta stay with endotracheal intubation!"  "Forget advanced airways, a bag-valve mask is all you need!"  "Only apneic oxygenation!"  Don't believe me?

Read More

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!

Read More

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… 

Read More