The more I work with alkaline batteries, the more impressed that I become. Packed in this compact cylinder is a modern miracle.

Although it’s something we should do year-round, we’re coming up on an especially notable time to say “thank you” to EMS workers. 

For adults and children, respiratory diseases are typically just a minor annoyance. For neonates, they can be fatal. Respiratory distress is a leading cause of death in newborns, particularly premature infants. In addition to infectious causes, it also occurs in 7% of neonates.

World Hemophilia Day, supported by the World Federation of Hemophilia, falls on April 17. Like other health events marked on the calendar, it’s an important opportunity to raise awareness about the blood clotting disorder and to ensure health care and treatment are more equitable and accessible for everyone affected by the disorder. 

Being an EMS worker is a demanding job that often requires heavy lifting and carrying, working in dangerous conditions and exposure to bodily fluids or other substances.

Seizures are a common emergency. First responders frequently encounter febrile seizures in children, epileptic seizures, and seizures due to brain anomalies such as dementia or brain lesions. In most cases, the seizure itself is not dangerous, but the medical condition that caused it may be.

Though your team may have a general disaster preparedness plan that you can fall back on if a tornado were to strike, or if a large flood were to inundate surrounding communities, how often do you evaluate this plan and the effectiveness of the disaster resources, protocols and equipment you have in place? 

As an emergency provider, you may not initially be in the mindset of preventing long-term complications with your patient. You stabilize and treat your patient’s condition or injury, and then you focus on how to manage the patient moving forward. This is the nature of prehospital and emergency medicine—assess, stabilize, and “package” the patient for further care. But let’s take it a step further. Your initial actions, especially when it comes to protecting your patient’s airway, make a big difference in your patient’s future outcomes.

You’ve responded to the same nightclub three times this month. Every call is the same: a young adult found unresponsive, most likely the result of an overdose on heroin. The patient is a male in his mid-twenties, pupils pinpoint, he’s barely breathing and showing the early signs of cyanosis. You load him onto the stretcher, place him in your unit, and race to the nearest hospital.

Precision and skill is required for Advanced airway management, especially in vulnerable patients. When performed correctly, initiating nasopharyngeal airways is very safe—and much safer than the alternative of doing nothing. Many first responders are reluctant to initiate a nasopharyngeal airway, citing fears of complications. But this route can enable intubation in patients with an intact gag reflex. Proper training can promote greater confidence, so don’t let fear deter you from practicing this life-saving technique. Forewarned is forearmed, so let’s look at some potential complications.