For every 1,000 Americans, 423 made an emergency room visit to a community hospital in 2013. The population of the United States that year was 316.5 million, so when you do the math, that’s almost a whopping 134 million ER visits. This number doesn’t include millions of hospital inpatient stays or outpatient procedures, further emphasizing the importance—and challenges—of providing quality care every time someone walks in, or is wheeled in, the door.

Seizures are a common emergency. First responders frequently encounter children having febrile seizures, 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. 

Flight medics face some of the highest job stress levels of any first responders. They are often responding to patients for whom seconds matter. In this rapidly changing environment, diligent airway management is critical, particularly for trauma survivors, neonates, and people with serious respiratory health conditions. 

The airway can decompensate quickly, so even if a patient is not experiencing respiratory distress at the first encounter, you must monitor their airway for the duration of the flight. Here’s what you need to know.

Overweight or obese patients can present suctioning difficulties. Because most American adults are overweight or obese, medical providers must train in the treatment of bariatric patients. These patients are highly susceptible to airway difficulties, particularly during surgery. The following strategies can help you effectively suction bariatric patients, even when they present with difficult airways.

The COVID-19 crisis has fundamentally shifted the emergency medicine landscape. Providers are exhausted, afraid, and overwhelmed by an increasingly taxed health system. Patients’ lives hang in the balance, and research shows that they’re just as afraid. Fear of the novel coronavirus is now keeping patients with emergency symptoms away from the emergency room. 

Suctioning a trach tube can help keep tracheostomy patients healthy, clear the airway, and reduce the risk of serious infections. Many trach patients are able to suction their own tubes at home. Some need the assistance of medical providers, especially when they are hospitalized, suffering respiratory distress, or have other comorbidities. Here’s what you need to know about trach tube suction.

Hypercapnia, also known as hypercarbia or carbon dioxide toxicity, causes dangerous levels of CO2 in the blood. In most cases, it signals a respiratory problem such as poor lung function, but it can also happen among deep divers, particularly when they do not breathe adequately, or have contaminated oxygen supplies. 

Knowing the signs and symptoms of carbon dioxide toxicity can save lives and equip medical personnel and first responders to act quickly.

Hypotension is clinically defined as systolic blood pressure below 90 or diastolic blood pressure below 60. Slight variations in these figures are normal, and very fit people may have unusually low blood pressure. So it’s important to take into account the patient’s full condition, not just their blood pressure. When a patient has other symptoms, such as dizziness or fainting, hypotension may signal a serious or even life-threatening ailment. If you encounter a hypotensive patient, here’s what you need to know to administer proper treatment. 

Prehospital airway suctioning can treat aspiration, choking, obstructed airways, and other common emergencies. Yet many first responders spend little time thinking about, let alone practicing, this vital skill. Because all interventions, including suctioning, carry some risks, this lack of experience may make providers reluctant to suction patients. Training EMS teams on prehospital airway suctioning can counteract this reluctance and empower teams to provide prompt, efficient, effective care in a wide variety of emergency settings.