The Lazarus phenomenon – paramedic friend or foe The initial excitement has long passed, your own excited, racing heart replaced by the weariness and aching back that comes from over thirty minutes of vigorous cardiopulmonary resuscitation. That fatigue has been […]
Continue ReadingAcute spinal cord injury vital signs Having determined that a patient cannot be prehospital cleared from suspicion of spinal injury, we have to think about the other vital sign changes that might be present. Some of these will be slightly […]
Continue ReadingAcute spinal injury movement and transport Having determined that a patient cannot be prehospital cleared from suspicion of spinal injury, we have to provide effective spinal care until ED arrival. Primary SCI happens at the time of trauma and not […]
Continue ReadingThe surgical airway What could be more dramatic than being unable to intubate a patient, the pulse oximetry reading plummeting, a desperate turn to the BVM resuscitator not able to do anything about arresting the slide, the hypoxic bradycardia and […]
Continue ReadingMy great idea fell from the sky. Literally. It wasn’t spontaneous. Well in a way it was of course, every idea has to have that first spark moment. But this one was nearly ten years in the making. I was […]
Continue ReadingOne prehospital pain and analgesia strategy Pain is one of the most frequent complaints amongst the patients we attend as paramedics. In managing pain, the intention for paramedics always is to exercise clinical judgement. Patients with serious pain will probably […]
Continue ReadingSedate or not to sedate, that is the prehospital question You are attending to an elderly man who has dementia. He is in an aged care residence and, looking at him, doesn’t have much of the muscle strength he may […]
Continue ReadingCan you help my mum please? There was really only two options for this callout. ‘Child caller,’ the dispatcher had said. It was either a hoax or someone in a really bad way. Normally the hoax callers like to talk […]
Continue ReadingWhat’s Christmas day without Christmas dinner? The radio suddenly blared, its tone rudely summoning our minds back into work mode. From reflex, I moved to press pause on the remote control beside me then grunted. This was the television and […]
Continue ReadingJust close your eyes……for the last time We stood outside the now smouldering house, safely back but with prime view. Only minutes earlier flames had been leaping from the front bedroom window and through the roof. In rapid time one […]
Continue ReadingI didn’t notice you were there too I was busy. Sitting in the clinician chair in the ambulance call centre there seemed to be an endless backlog of hospital enquiries, urgent bookings and other tasks all seeking my attention. Requests […]
Continue ReadingSorry, I did say that didn’t I I knelt before the man, intravenous needle in my hand. His colour was ashen grey and sweat poured from him as if it were a spray bottle I held. His free hand rubbed […]
Continue ReadingOh no it’s you again Jim came into my life in the worst possible way. I spent a day getting to know him and his wife in a hospital delivery ward. At the end of it, his infant, his first […]
Continue ReadingDon’t forget the new guy The delivery ward was busy. It was a major hospital and today several mother’s to be had all arrived within a few hours of each other in various stages of labour. My luck was in. […]
Continue ReadingGrief – a paramedic’s ringside view Every now and then a callout unfolds in a way that etches itself indelibly into your mind. Early evening, my partner and I are attending a man in cardiac arrest. He is in his […]
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