The CDC just released a priorities statement critical of harm reduction and safe consumption sites. It includes this passage: CDC grants will prioritize evidence-based programs and deprioritize programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm. This statement is…
You are dispatched to the zoo for a snake bite. There you find the reptile keeper in extremis. He says he has been bitten by a deadly mamba snake and if he is not soon administered the antivenom, he will die. You don’t carry antivenom in your med box, but there is antivenom there at…
Titrate Naloxone to effect. The effect is restoration of breathing. Not return to consciousness. Too much naloxone can cause a person dependent on opioids to suffer withdrawal symptoms. A person put in sudden withdrawal can suffer from horrible pain, nausea, vomiting, tremors, rapid heart rate, excessive sweating and other unpleasant symptoms. A person put in…
“Endotracheal Intubation is the insertion of a tube in the trachea. Tracheal intubation is the definitive method of airway management. Endotracheal intubation allows the greatest control of the airway. It is a skill that requires extensive training and is subject to degradation if not practiced appropriately.” Advanced Airway Management, Charles Stewart MD, FACEP, Prentice Hall…
I recerted the American Heart Association’s PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) today for the 18th time. Last week I recerted ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) for the same. For those not in health care, everyone in EMS and most everyone in emergency departments and likely in other areas of the hospital have to take these…
People don’t read books much anymore. I don’t read books much anymore. I used to read all the time. When I wasn’t reading I was hunting through used book stores to find more books to read. The walls of my room were lined with bookshelves, many double layered. Now most of my books are in…
Filter magazine has a great article “Overdoses Should Be Termed “Prohibition-Related Deaths” that argues that our overdose deaths are caused by the prohibition environment that makes drugs more dangerous than they should be and drives drug users into the shadows where they use in places where they are unlikely to be found if they overdose….
Many years ago… A police officer sits next to me on the bench seat and interrogates my patient as we ride lights and sirens to the hospital. He has second and third degree burns on his chest and right arm. I put in an IV and start running fluid. The man needs pain medicine. The…
Last night I attended an Overdose Awareness Day event hosted by Today I Matter, an organization founded by a father in memory of his son, Timothy Lally. Today I Matter’s mission is “to reduce the stigma and shame of mental illness and addiction, and to promote the physical, emotional, and mental health of our community.”…