41. Traumatic hypotension – June 2015 There are many causes of hypotension in multi trauma aside from the obvious haemorrhagic means. Injury to the spinal cord can block sympathetic stimulation to the lower part of the body leading to unopposed […]
Continue Reading42. Pre-hospital traumatic hypotension resuscitation – June 2015 The first aim is to recognise the severity of the problem. This includes involving a standard patient assessment of primary survey, vital sign assessment, secondary physical examination including key history of the patient’s […]
Continue Reading22. I found another person inside the patient – June 2015 It was just any other day in my recently chosen occupation as paramedic. My partner and I were engaged in a routine transport case moving an older and frail […]
Continue ReadingWhat attitude have I brought today? The sirens were blaring and we were charging through red lights just as we are paid to do. We were on our way to a patient complaining of suspected cardiac chest pain. Routine enough […]
Continue Reading36. Hypertension as a pre-hospital emergency – June 2015 Hypertension is a very commonly used word in pre-hospital practice. Sometimes it seems that every patient attended has it in their past history with antihypertensive medication frequently found in the pill […]
Continue Reading6. Defibrillation for first responders – June 2015 Three decades ago, use of a defibrillator belonged to doctors, a handful of trained nurses and intensive care paramedics. Move forward a decade and these devices had become common amongst all paramedics. […]
Continue Reading18. When nature calls – June 2015 In a job where the statement ‘you must see some terrible sights’ is common, the calling of nature must surely feature frequently. Without doubt some of those terrible sights do involve normal bodily […]
Continue Reading5. Airway care for first responders – June 2015 Most patient care clinical guidelines or protocols start with a sentence along the lines of ‘ensure the patient has a patent airway’. Fair enough that would seem. What constitutes a patent airway […]
Continue ReadingCardiac arrest for first responders – February 2016 Arguably the most serious call of all for any pre-hospital responder is to the patient in cardiac arrest. The alternative for the patient is irreversible brain damage then death within a few […]
Continue Reading3. Problems with blood sugar – May 2015 Glucose is a key cell need along with oxygen. Glucose, a type of sugar, is an important substance used to provide energy production to fuel cell activities. It isn’t used directly in […]
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