#hap26

Similar challenges, different approaches – Mass Casualty Incident training lessons from Pakistan. St Emlyn’s

A little while ago I reported from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma’s meeting – specifically covering the management of major – or mass casualty – incidents (MCI). Many similar themes stood out despite these occurring in various locations – in high-income, developed countries.

Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are unfortunately no strangers to these types of events,…

“To Protect and Serve…and Drop Off”. Penetating Trauma in Philadelphia. St Emlyn’s

Penetrating trauma is a rising problem on both sides of the Atlantic – just tune into any of the major news channels to see the effect.  Its increasing burden on US prehospital deaths from 2007 to 2014 was recently highlighted by Sakran and colleagues1.  This has resulted in an increasing emphasis2 on multidisciplinary involvement amongst emergency services and even civilians in providing basic…

104 Reflections from Sydney HEMS – the eBook. St.Emlyn’s

Firstly, the title of this post is not a typo. When I collated the reflective lessons from my series of Sydney HEMS blog posts I realised there were actually 104, not 101. Apologies for the misleading advertising, but there was so much good stuff to get in!  (Ed – let’s call it 101+3).

Secondly, you can get them all in one place in a new iBook/eBook for free, if you fancy downloading something…

Mass Casualty Incidents: Lessons from AAST. St.Emlyn’s

    Mass Casualty Incidents: What can we (re)learn?

This year, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma held its Annual Meeting in Baltimore – a city I called home for a while after I moved across the Atlantic a few years ago. It seemed fitting to have it here – while Baltimore is rich in history, it is certainly no stranger to violence.

  https://twitter.com/emeddoc/status/90791505758…

101 Reflective Lessons from a Year with Sydney HEMS. Part Six: Self Care

This post, detailing my reflections on self care in clinical retrieval medicine, is the sixth in a series recording my reflections on the twelve months I spent working for Sydney HEMS in prehospital and retrieval medicine. The first post covers medical education – you can find it here. The second covers human factors – you can find it here. The third covers clinical lessons from retrieval…

Air Zermatt, Ashley Liebig, SMACC and St.Emlyn’s

En route to #dasMACC this year, I had the incredible opportunity to visit colleagues at Air Zermatt (@airzermatt) in Switzerland. With an exceptional view of the Matterhorn in the distance, the base situated at 5,310 ft, is home to one of the worlds most famous ariel search and rescue teams. You can see more of the team here.

https://vimeo.com/222216018

Joining the crew for a weekend shift,  I…

JC: Self extrication vs. assisted extrication. St.Emlyn’s

The last 2 years have seen the agreed wisdom of spinal immobilisation challenged. We have seen a paradigm shift in our attitude towards the use of cervical collar with some prehospital services now removing the automatic use of this device, and international organisations questioning their routine use. In brief we may be in a period of change and whilst there is not yet full consensus on whether…