“In god we trust, all others must bring data.”

The quote comes from a man named W. Edwards Deeming, a noted management expert circa 1950s. It sums the bane of my existence as an undergrad psychology student. If it cannot be studied, proven beyond a 5% reasonable doubt and peer reviewed then it ceases to exist. There is good reason for this strict empirical approach to research. Bad things can happen when we believe good public speakers with little evidence. Consider spinal immobilization.

Boarded until proven otherwise. Such is the attitude for most spinal immobilization training in the pre-hospital environment. If the mechanism of injury suggests potential spinal involvement we break out the velcro. If the Px thinks about the words pain and neck in the same sentence we lunge to take C-spine. Our otherwise stable Px with no neurological deficits is then tightly strapped onto a rigid backboard, hands and feet bound.

There is growing evidence which suggests this all-encompassing practice has evolved not from empirical research but from dogma and fear of litigation. Dr. John Burton, of the Albany Medical Centre, discussed the over utilization of spinal immobilization in a 2008 Podcast. Among his points was a candid look at the anatomy of a spinal injury.

Look for me in airports/hockey arenas

New international AED sign

ILCOR has announced an official international sign for automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). ILCOR chairman and cardiologist R.W. Koster described the sign as indicating the presence of an AED within a room, a container or that an AED can be found in a certain direction. The symbol purposefully has no markings to allow for international usage.

Increasingly research is indicating that the best patient outcomes do not require advanced life support (ALS), pharmacological treatment or invasive procedures. As Dr. John Burton describes, if you want to survive a heart attack out of hospital then you will want; Someone nearby to quickly begin CPR; An AED to be very close; And to have your core body temperature dropped a few degrees. Bringing AEDs closer to cardiac arrest is one of the simplest measures that can be undertaken to improve patient outcome.

The Kidneys

Peeeeeeeee. We all do it. What happens when we do not? Bad things. Very bad things actually. I was astounded to learn the importance of a seemingly tertiary bodily activity. And so I present a quick look at renal function.

As Jeffrey Guy, MD put it, “Our bodies are basically large bags of saltwater”. An adult man, weighing 80 kg, has approximately 48 kg of H2O within his body (ref: IV Therapy Podcast). The human body has two kidneys which produce urine for various homeostatic purposes. These include regulating the amount of saltwater within the body as well as the components of the saltwater.

Day One

The requisite first post.

For those of you linked from my Facebook page this blog will serve as an extension of the The Wild West Adventure Blog I published. The focus of that blog was to document my farcical transition from business guy to fire service/coal miner guy. I wanted to keep in touch with the Ontarioans and found a surprising interest in my nomadic transgressions and so I kept the focus of the Wild West blog to mainly autobiographical topics. Any topics including a high level of shop-talk and esoteric jargon I usually reserved for wing night at the Lamp.

I am though, or have become, a keener. A Fire Service and EMS/OFA (Occupational First Aid) nerd. I have read the IFSTA, the Jone’s and Bartlett Fire Service text and both 3″ EMP-III binders from cover to cover. I manage to get in four to five peer-reviewed Journal articles a week and have dived head-long into preparatory study of Anatomy and Physiology. The problem is since moving back to Ontario I have lost my outlet! People here look at you funny when you point out the person with jaundice or follow fire trucks around. Similarly I understand not why people get mad when you symptom-mine their sickness bitching and snort when it is anything beyond your BLS capabilities.

And so, fellow Fire Service, Medic/EMS and Mine Rescue geeks we shall discuss our plight here away from the bored rolling eyes of our friends. I have spoken to quite a few of you friends who have expressed an interest in this little slice of life and learned an immense amount in less than three years. To accommodate the diverse backgrounds of all four of you I will follow the APA guidelines and introduce each acronym first, utilize more common terms whenever possible, etc. I will also stay true to my Psychology reference or suffer the hammer education and include references wherever possible.

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