Anyone who has worked in the field of EMS has worked their fair share of codes. You arrive on the scene to find a patient in full arrest, so you initiate CPR, begin bagging, and break out your ALS equipment. Everything is running smoothly—that is until the patient vomits. You reach for your portable suction unit, only to realize you left it on the truck. Big mistake!

Although it’s an issue with year-round importance, April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, drawing attention to the leading cause of vehicle accidents in the United States. 

Although the placement of chest tubes usually falls to physicians, many healthcare workers—be they paramedics or nurses—have had to care for patients with chest tubes in place, either in a hospital setting or during transport. Chest tubes are a critical factor in certain respiratory emergencies, so let’s review the indications for placement and some of the dangerous complications you can avoid when caring for such patients.

Your BLS engine company is dispatched to a “difficulty breathing” call and your ALS rescue is still in the process of delivering their previous patient to the hospital. Dispatch is sending the next closest rescue, but the responding unit has just notified you that they are held up by a train.

You arrive on scene, grab your O2 bag and jump kit and head inside. You and your fellow EMTs are on your own, at least for the next several minutes. You had better be prepared to assess and initiate treatment for a patient in respiratory distress!

Emergency medical responders are responsible for saving lives every day. Their knowledge and skills enable them to quickly assess and treat patients who may be unconscious, unable to communicate or located in remote terrain.

Portable suction is not utilized in the field on every call, and not on an everyday basis. However, when it is needed, it can make the difference between a patient that leaves the hospital and one who dies of aspiration pneumonia after a successful resuscitation.

Airway suctioning is a routine part of a first responder’s job. From preventing aspiration pneumonia to clearing the airway of a drowning victim, the right suction machine is an integral part of your EMS toolkit. Yet many paramedics, EMTs, and other first responders avoid suctioning the airway unless they absolutely have to.

The past year has seen an unprecedented surge in airway emergencies, with millions of people across the globe infected by the COVID-19 virus. Whether your agency previously suctioned people daily or suction is new to your repertoire, odds are you’re doing more suctioning than ever before. 

Suctioning has long been a mainstay of both emergency and routine medical care, but in 2020, it truly came into its own. On a given team, there might have been one or two suctioning experts. But in the wake of the pandemic, every member of every team needed to become a skilled, compassionate expert at suctioning patients.