4 thoughts on “Combat cricothyrotomy inflight -Inside Combat Rescue series”
Strong work. Vertical incision, butt end of the scalpel as a placeholder; interesting that the field was obscured after the placement due to the fountain of blood from the lower airways! Suction suction suction. I do not envy having only syringe-based suction available.
Thanks for sharing this. I made some notes on the timeline in case others don’t have time to watch the whole episode.
32:40 call received
35:40 patient picked up
37:47 decision made
40:10 incision
It was impressive given the environment and level of training of these guys. Hard to get a sense for the time intervals due to editing. It seemed to me that they all recognized the possible need for a surgical airway due to the MOI, which probably helps. As has been discussed before, it is more difficult to proceed in the situation where you feel like you could probably get the tube if you just had another ten seconds.
I don’t know how they manage a patients airway with next to zero access to the head with it being so close to that door. It seems British MERT have it spot on using a chinook and physician staffed teams that could probably have crash RSI’d him with or without a cric. It always seems like it a cramped cluster f**k when they have more than one patient in the back.
Great series and respect to the coalition forces out there doing a great job.
Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine - THE PHARM dedicated to the memory of Dr John Hinds 
Strong work. Vertical incision, butt end of the scalpel as a placeholder; interesting that the field was obscured after the placement due to the fountain of blood from the lower airways! Suction suction suction. I do not envy having only syringe-based suction available.
Thanks for sharing this. I made some notes on the timeline in case others don’t have time to watch the whole episode.
32:40 call received
35:40 patient picked up
37:47 decision made
40:10 incision
It was impressive given the environment and level of training of these guys. Hard to get a sense for the time intervals due to editing. It seemed to me that they all recognized the possible need for a surgical airway due to the MOI, which probably helps. As has been discussed before, it is more difficult to proceed in the situation where you feel like you could probably get the tube if you just had another ten seconds.
I don’t know how they manage a patients airway with next to zero access to the head with it being so close to that door. It seems British MERT have it spot on using a chinook and physician staffed teams that could probably have crash RSI’d him with or without a cric. It always seems like it a cramped cluster f**k when they have more than one patient in the back.
Great series and respect to the coalition forces out there doing a great job.
These guys are truly the best…..Performing a cric with all those vibrations…..tough stuff i can guarantee…..Awesome job!!!!!