We’ve had a spate of snake bites on Kangaroo Island over the holiday period. So I thought it would be worth reviewing snake bite management. Not least because I’ve had some sensible suggestions from my colleagues at Raptor Domain / KI Birds of Prey who run South Australias only ‘in-flight’ bird display AND offer a …
Rural Generalist, Swiss Army Knives & Waiting Lists
I’m proud to be a rural doctor. My training is in not just Primary Care but also in Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics and Anaesthesia. To be able to serve their communities best, rural doctors need broad brush skills across the board. Rather than the finely-honed precision instrument of the specialist (akin to a scalpel), rural generalists …
Gameshow or Desert Island Supraglottic Airway Devices?
There are over 20 different supraglottic airway devices on the market, each with their own pros & cons. This can lead to confusion when choosing preferred supraglottic airways to stock on emergency trolleys, with proponents favouring one device over another based on various performance characteristics or bias towards situational practice (e.g.: OT vs ED) How …
Airway Popups
Just heading home from a whirlwind European trip, ostensibly for the purposes of attending #dasSMACC in Berlin. I’m proud to have been involved with smacc as speaker, workshop presenter and occasional twitter moderator since inception in Sydney 2013. It’s cemented itself as the premier conference for critical care and emergency medicine on a global stage …
Community CPR, AEDs & Out-of-Hospital-Cardiac Arrests
The value of Bystander CPR and Public Access AED use is shown nicely in this NEJM article http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1601891 What does this mean? I think it means that a sensible approach to out-of-hospital cardia arrest is NOT about hospitals and helicopters (although post ROSC transport and critical care is vital!) Rather, we need to ensure robust …