Crash and Burn Part 2 - Approach to the MVC Patient

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Crash and Burn Part 2 - Approach to the MVC Patient

We’re back again this week to discuss more about the initial approach to the MVC patient in B-pod.  Last week we discussed occult bowel injury in the setting of blunt abdominal trauma.  In the second episode of this topic, Dr. Powell also highlights the importance of an appropriate pain medication selection upon discharge from the emergency department, citing the importance to consciously avoid cavalier prescription of potentially habit-forming pain medications.  But what kind of risk is involved when we send patients home with opioid prescriptions?  Are they destined to seek out more?

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Crash and Burn: The Approach to the MVC Patient

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Crash and Burn: The Approach to the MVC Patient

Certain pathology gets a lot of attention in medical school.  Stroke? Sure!  Tests love asking about which vessel is blocked based on clues from the physical exam.  And rightly so; a fund of medical knowledge is certainly valuable when it comes to identifying pathology such as this.  However, when faced with a problem like blunt trauma, i.e. the “MVC”, one may find that there are also many practical and logistical factors that require bedside experience, ranging from marshaling of resources to reconciling patient presentation with reported mechanism of injury...

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Flights - A Blow to the Head

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Flights - A Blow to the Head

You’re working as the Pod-Doc, having just taken the radio from the off-going UH-doc, you just finish admitting the patient in C40 for NSTEMI when the tones go off.

“Air Care 1 and Pod Doc respond to a scene for motorcycle crash, Northern Kentucky”

You call the B-Pod attending, sign out the pod, grab the blood from the blood cooler and head to the helipad.  Flying over the river, landing at a local firehouse’s parking lot you hop out of the back of the helicopter and head to the awaiting squad.

Your patient is a 29 year-old male who was riding his motorcycle (without a helmet) on a local country road.  Coming around a blind corner he unexpectedly found a car stopped in the middle of the road.  Striking the car from behind at ~35mph, he flew over the handlebars and impacted the back of the car.

On EMS’s arrival he was initially unconscious, but since their arrival has become increasingly combative

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