Many medical situations require emergency suction. And when you have a patient with an obstructed airway, be it from sputum, blood, vomitus, or tissue, you had better have the suction handy, for there is no other way to return the airway to patency.

We all know the important role suctioning plays in airway management. Imagine treating a respiratory, trauma, or cardiac arrest patient without the aid of suction. Impossible, right? Effective nasotracheal suctioning can mean the difference between a patent and a non-patent airway. It can also mean the difference between life and death for your patient. 

When transporting a critically ill patient, it’s easy to focus only on the medical emergency. But ambulance crashes are common – more than 6,500 ambulance crashes occur each year, claiming an average of 33 lives annually. Ambulance safety depends on taking proactive steps to mitigate risk in the event of a crash.

Invented in 1907 by Dr. Sidney Yankauer, the Yankauer suction tip has withstood the test of time. The Yankauer suction tip was originally designed to remove blood and secretions from a patient’s oral airway during tonsillectomy procedures. Many practitioners call the Yankauer a “tonsil tip” suction device for this reason.

The ABCs of patient care begin with the airway. Does your patient have airway patency? Can your patient maintain their airway? Are there any obstructions or contaminants obstructing the airway? Questions like these are likely second nature to you, and you probably don’t even realize you are asking them when caring for your patients.

Quickly and efficiently hooking up your portable suction machine can save precious seconds, preventing hypoxia and reducing the risk of serious respiratory complications. It should only take a few seconds, but if you’ve never done it before, the process can feel overwhelming and frustrating.

About 11 people die by drowning each day in the U.S. alone. Thousands more are treated for nonfatal near-drowning incidents in emergency departments. Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among those aged 14 and under. When a person is injured in the water, seconds matter. Having the right portable suction machine available can reduce mortality and morbidity. 

Aspiration pneumonia is a life-threatening complication resulting from the inhalation of airway contaminants and pathogen overgrowth. Multiple substances are directly toxic to the lungs or can stimulate an inflammatory response when aspirated – gastric acid from vomiting is the most common aspirated substance. 

While it may seem like a minor consideration to some, EMS providers know that patient positioning plays a crucial role in the quality, safety and effectiveness of medical treatment. An article from the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation states that patient positioning is 90% of the airway management battle.

Spinal cord injuries are devastating events. In the U.S., most are the result of automobile collisions, but falls, penetrating injuries, and blunt trauma can also cause injury to the spinal cord, leading to a respiratory emergency. It is estimated that there are more than 18,000 spinal cord injuries each year in the U.S. When the injuries involve the cervical vertebrae, specifically the midsection (C3 through C5), they can disrupt the phrenic nerve, which controls the movement of the diaphragm, rendering the patient unable to breathe on their own.