Reviews by Norm Rooker, EMT-P
At last year's EMS EXPO in Las Vegas, NV, former street medic, current ED physician and EMS educator Bryan Bledsoe handed me a copy of the premiere edition of the National Paramedic Institute's video CE program, Medic Monthly, which was reviewed by Thom Dick in the November 2003 issue of EMS.
Medic Monthly is a subscription video education series designed for fire departments, rescue and first aid squads, EMS agencies and ambulance services. It costs $60 per person per year up to the first 50 copies and is discounted after that. Included in the price are eight installments of an incredibly well-written, produced and dramatized video education program that features a major theme/call, plus brief bullets or sections on such topics as hazmat, professionalism on calls, medic fitness and even firehouse cooking.
The opening subject of this series is cardiac asthma. The video begins with an everyday life scene that suddenly turns into a medical emergency. The story immediately drew me in, as the medics responded to, evaluated and treated the elderly patient. As the call unfolds, the action occasionally cuts away to Dr. Steve Katz, a well-known ED physician, EMS educator and director for this program. Katz presents salient clinical points for the initial size-up, BLS assessment, differential clinical points, BLS and ALS treatments and the reasons for each of them, teaching viewers through the scene.
The tape includes actual lung sounds, along with explanations by the paramedics treating the patients. After each clinical point or pearl, the call progresses to the next one. By completion of the run, I realized I had received an excellent presentation at the first responder, BLS and ALS levels on cardiac asthma.
The subscription also includes a pretest, post-test, bibliography and other pertinent factors, such as a printout of the patient's EKG.
I've seen a number of video CE programs over the years, and I think the folks at the National Paramedic Institute have definitely gotten it right. For more information, visit www.paramedicinstitute.com, or call 800/671-9411.
Interested in reality programming? Have I got two shows for you.
The first one, Living Dangerously, is on the National Geographic Channel. The episode I watched featured a volunteer firefighter who jumped off New York City's Tappan Zee Bridge into the Hudson River in an attempt to rescue a suicidal female who had just leapt off. Included in that segment was an interview with a trauma surgeon who specialized in the study of jumpers and gave a nice explanation on survivability being dependent on how the victim/rescuer hits the water. Another segment featured a small-plane pilot who crashed in the mountains of southwestern Colorado. He helped get his two friends out of the airplane and then discovered what many folks learn belatedly, that cell phone service is very poor in the mountains. He hiked out through the snow to get help. Hours later, he made it to a trail head and was able to activate a SAR mission for his two friends. I found this to be an enjoyable show that I would watch again, despite its slightly slow pace.
The second is Critical Rescue on the Discovery Health Channel, a one-hour presentation of an actual incident via live footage, re-creations, computer animations and interviews with key players, victims and victims' families.
Part of what I like about Critical Rescue is its equal emphasis on the medical aspect and the rescue itself. While some of the recreations are a little cheap, and some explanations overly simplified for the general public, the show's quality is almost good enough to request CE for it. Some of the incidents covered include a 1996 trench wall collapse in Margate, FL, that killed one worker, slightly injured and entrapped another and temporarily buried two more, and the 1998 Sedgewick County, KS, grain elevator explosion.
Perhaps you recently received a packet of information as I did about a line of goods offered by Positive Promotions. The company is offering a number of reasonably priced items just in time for EMS Week, which is May 16–22, specifically five coloring/activity books developed to get the EMS message across to kids in kindergarten through 3rd grade, and 4th–6th grades.
The folks at Positive Promotions are delighted to send out free samples of their coloring books, so I took them up on their offer and checked out: Let's Learn About Ambulances; EMS Volunteers...Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Save Lives: Careers in EMS Educational Activities Book, EMS Caring for Our Community Educational Activities Book, and Be An Everyday EMS Hero: Practice Safety All the Time.
The books are 74 cents apiece, ordered in minimum lots of 25 or more. For an extra $9.95 setup fee, they can be custom-imprinted with your organization's name and address, or a message on the cover. For more information, visit www.positivepromotions.com or call 800/635-2666.
Moving on to adult fiction, Heartbeat is a self-published book by Dr. Samuel Finn-an ED doc with almost two decades of experience, who currently lives and practices in the Seattle/Tacoma, WA, area. Heartbeat is his second novel.
The book opens with one of those shifts from hell in an inner-city hospital ED. Dr. Leon Mendel is going through a tough time in his personal life: His marriage is on the rocks, people are dying at the emergency room he supervises and he is having psychotic delusions. Then, he meets Rita Thal, an alcoholic trying to recover from the death of her only child.
What follows is a frequently uneven story of a health practitioner trying to do his best to pursue a new relationship, while everything seems to implode around him. Heartbeat is a good story, and the war stories are well written. It is obvious that Finn has "walked the walk." But, like many self-published books, Heartbeat would have benefited from a good editor.
With that said, the book is an enjoyable read if you like gritty psychological thrillers with realistic ED medicine.
Heartbeat, by Dr. Samuel Finn. Booklocker.com, 2002, ISBN: 1591131057, $14.95.
When SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) broke out in parts of Asia and Canada a year ago, it was feared that it would be a pandemic like the 1918 influenza that took the lives of over 25 million people. Fortunately, this did not happen.
Professors P.C. Leung and E.E. Ooi, healthcare researchers and epidemiologists in Hong Kong, have assembled a nicely written book, titled SARS War: Combating the Disease, that explains flu viruses and how they adapt and mutate over the years. While technical, the explanation can be easily understood by the average reader. The authors also explain other viral outbreaks, including avian (bird) flu, which is currently showing up abroad and, to a far lesser extent, in the U.S.
The authors give a precise timeline on the emergence of SARS, the epidemiology of how it spread, and the actions, both medical and political, that were taken to stop it. Also included are sections on the economic and cultural impacts of this disease, but the heart of the matter is contained in the first five chapters.
While SARS War is not a must-read book, it is a well-written, fast read on SARS in particular and virus epidemics in general, that I strongly recommend front-line EMS providers take the time to read.
SARS War: Combating the Disease by P.C. Leung & E.E. Ooi, editors. World Scientific Publishing Co., 2003, ISBN: 9-8123-8438-3, $9.90.
