Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine – THE PHARM dedicated to the memory of Dr John Hinds

Jodie Mills, RN works with CareFlight’s Top End Medical Retrieval Service, flying out of Darwin across vast stretches of the Northern Territory. She grew up in the Royal Melbourne Hospital ICU before moving to Darwin 8 years ago where she completed midwifery studies.  She joined CareFlight 4 years ago and slightly pities all those who don’t get to fly in the top end. 

When asked to contribute to a blog and write about psychiatric aeromedical retrieval all I heard was my colleagues’ collective signs of “not another psych job!!”

The thing is, I’ve developed a bit of an interest in these patients after closely looking at the psychiatric retrievals in NT for the last 3 years. This specialised patient group presents a huge challenge to both the flight crew and our remote colleagues when presenting acutely unwell in our communities.

By the Numbers

I recently presented at the ASA/FNA/ASAM Aeromedical Retrieval Conference…

DISCLOSURE: MEDEST strongly encourage AWARNESS reading the propoused articles.

Abstracts are often misleading and articles potentially biased. Even this selection is not immune from potential bias (just human factors not commercial interests).

So download the full text and read it carefully to have a clear and complete opinion of the related topics.

The latest Review of the year is dedicated to a collection of the most important (for us) articles of this 2014.

This is MEDEST way to wish you all Merry Xmas.

Enjoy the reading:

Cardiac Arrest

Chest compression

• Chest Compression Alone Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Is Associated With Better Long-Term Survival Compared with Standard Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
• Chest compression depth and survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Mechanical Devices

• Manual vs. integrated automatic load-distributing band CPR with equal survival after out of hospital cardiac arrest. The randomized CIRC trial
• Mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation-vs-conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation in-out-of-hospital cardiac…

This thing comes from Dr Andrew Weatherall, paediatric anaesthetist and prehospital doc. He also blogs over at www.theflyingphd.wordpress.com

I don’t do DIY. This is partly because in the same way I wouldn’t expect a carpenter to have a crack at fixing their kids’ bones in preference to seeing an orthopod, I think it makes sense to use professionals.

It’s also because I’m just not that great at it. Anything I did make would end up looking like something trying to squeeze itself into the shape of the thing it is sort of supposed to be. And I’m fond enough of my family to want to protect them from the risks of my own handiwork.

Here’s one I prepared earlier (via CC and flickr user mhlradio)

Anyway, I do paediatric anaesthesia. I get to spend more than enough time trying to make things that aren’t quite right for the situation fit…