When you think about treating patients with head injuries, using an emergency suction pump may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Certainly, airway is your main priority, but we tend to focus more on level of consciousness, spinal immobilization, and assessing for additional trauma than we do on portable suction.

If you serve in an administrative position within your department, you have a lot on your plate. Certifications must be kept up, training requirements must be met, and your personnel must be prepared to respond to an ever-changing EMS landscape, from biological attacks to mass-casualty incidents.

When you think of intubation, you should automatically be thinking "suction." The two treatments go hand in hand; you cannot safely intubate without the aid of suction, which is why you must include the portable suction unit anytime there is the possibility of intubating.

When was the last time you worked a code? If you serve a busy, urban area, or a population heavy on retirees, you probably remain proficient in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS). Drug therapies and dosages, intubation procedures, and post-resuscitation care are part and parcel to busy EMS systems. But what if you work in a slow-paced, rural setting, where the calls are few and far between? What happens to your ACLS skills if you rarely use them? Most likely, you lose them.

Head injuries have been receiving a lot of press lately. Between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the one hand and the National Football League on the other, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have been elevated to front-page news. It’s been a long time coming. The rate of TBIs in America (and among Americans returning from war) is reaching frightening proportions. Here are a few statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:¹

It's three a.m. and you have just been dispatched to a "pediatric difficulty breathing." As you rub the sleep from your eyes, you perform a quick mental review of PALS protocol, just in case. Perhaps the child simply has a cold, and the parent has panicked. It happens all the time. But perhaps it's something more serious. You had better be ready for anything.

The storm had knocked out power across three counties, and unfortunately your zone was situated in the thick of the storm. Although your station was equipped with an emergency generator, the steady influx of calls had kept you from touching base. And now you're dispatched to an overdose at the nearby homeless shelter.

If you were to design the ideal portable suction machine for emergency medical situations, what characteristics would you choose? The equipment used by EMS professionals takes a beating on a regular basis. Emergency calls happen in the most inopportune locations, at any time of the day or night. The tools must be designed to withstand inclement weather, temperature extremes, and the rough-and-tumble arena of prehospital medicine. And when it comes to something as vital as your portable suction machine, there's no room for error.