Well those last two post were interesting!

Look here's the thing.

I'm not showing the early signs of PTSD. I have had a run of cardiac jobs and I was enjoying a drink in the safety of our home with my wife and I found it hard to type in that condition that's all.

But

It makes me wonder! (Local protocol & pharmacology discussion, transmission will return to normal after a while. I apologies to any who are bored by the following and suggest that you go and find the blog of Paris Hilton and then you'll know real boring content.)

P1 officers are getting a different analgesia that is cheaper and easier to order in bulk. That's good pain management is very important and needs to be done.

We are reportedly also getting laryngoscopes and magill forceps to remove that side of beef that gets lodged in the throat of some poor punter.
But how often do we attend a real choking?
So up until now, back blows/chest thrusts, IPPV and get to hospital quick if that all fails on the 'once in a blue moon' choking that we don't attend.

I'm told that we will also get a form of IV dextrose for the common hypoglycaemic jobs we do. That will be a really clever decision by the powers that be.

Now what about arrests? (Some of this might get a bit bloody silly.)
Now we arrive on scene, we could be a level 2,3,3C or P1 officer, because there are thousands more of us than Intensive Care level 5's

We are entrusted to be able to correctly diagnose a cardiac arrest and advise comms of such and activate the extra manpower required.

Now ponder, with the extra skills and pharmacology that P1's get why don't we have Adrenaline for the arrest job.
Now before some of you start taking me to task about the ABC's, they are a must and nothing will interrupt them other than defibrillation but if another P1 car is nearby cardiac drugs could be started sooner.

I mean what are we looking at (and feel free to make a comment)?

Keep it simple Cardiac Arrest is three things

1) Too Fast
2) Too Slow
3) Nothing

3 - is easy, work for the heart and check every now and then to see if there is a shockable rhythm.

1 - slow it down, first try a good dose of electricity per protocol and then Amiodarone if that fails.

2 - speed it up, Adrenaline and some Atropine and any voltage as required.

Yeah, yeah, I know there is a little more to it than that, but not much and I ask you to remember that we can all diagnose an arrest and that basically means the person is warm and dieing at a cellular level from the lack of heart activity.

It's a one way trip from here, what I'm asking is can we not get more options to give this patient who does not have a very good prognosis without waiting for a level 5 when there are all these highly skilled P1's around now and the P1 numbers are only going to grow.

Food for thought, discuss amongst yourselves or leave a comment on the blog

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz