Last week was complicated and a useful follow-on to my last post. I am not lost and not floundering; I am recalibrating and reengaging.
American College of Emergency Physicians
I’ll start with the big teaching convention in Las Vegas geared toward emergency services in the hospital setting. My friend invited me to attend in Denver in 2019 and I have to say, I was lost – I didn’t know the terminology or acronyms. It is not too often I can be placed in a situation with zero anchors of knowledge but medicine is adept at doing that.
Last week was different: I had five years of informal study under my belt and the ‘ol brainpan had absorbed a lot. So it was enjoyable in addition to learning a ton. I was even able to speak to a couple of ER docs after one lecture and teach them a bit about VADs (heart bypass pumps) as they were terrified of patients showing up with those installed. (That knowledge was courtesy of my last job in biomed.)
I also learned a lot about opioid withdrawal and addiction recovery, clearly a huge topic in medicine these days. The best lines were spoken by Dr. Alexis LaPietra on the topic
“Muscle through it” is ignorance
“We are not nice to these people (the addicted), the people who give them fentanyl are.”
Lots of gems I wrote down, I could go on and on but I won’t bore you. But it was a refreshing experience for me with everything going on in my personal life.
Remote Area Medical
We wrapped up RAM, mission 1453 out of Pahrump, NV over the weekend. This was my third – and likely last – effort in the town since I move to TX next week.
One morning my friend asked what I did there for two days? Here is a long answer to a short question.
My approach has matured since 2022 when I carried a Glock and Taser on my belt in case there was trouble; now I carry a maximally disarming smile with sincerely kind words floating upon a sea of empathy. I didn’t drop the protection aspect but I simply don’t default to that.
As the “overnight check in crew” lead operating from 10:00 PM until 7:00 AM of course we have some simple paperwork to complete but it doesn’t need to be a sterile effort. My team and I are not commissioning Tesla cars, we’re helping people – who came seeking help.
I experienced a couple of profound moments on day #2. One of the first people we checked in was a woman in line I tried to gently wake up by tapping on her window. She bolted awake! Once inside the gate she sleepily cruised over for a bunch of snacks and bottled water. John, on our team said to me “You should give her some chicken.” Panda Express in town had catered dinner for the RAM crew and the organizers made sure some was left for us overnight guys. So I fixed her up a plate. Would I do that for all 190+ patients? No. But I thought John had some insight there so I followed his intuition. Her appreciation was notable.
A second patient was a big guy who drove 90 min. from the next town over to have a tooth pulled. He recognized me from the prior four events. As we sat together at 6 AM watching the sun color the eastern horizon a subtle pink he told me they wouldn’t extract his tooth yesterday; BP above 200 and blood glucose in the 300s. High risk defined. He was my same age but essentially 2-3x of me in weight and basic vitals. My prior service to him at RAM bought me some authority to not offer him medical advice but to invite him to consider a new path of living which will optimize his chances of spending the most time with his grandkids.
Talk is easy, action is hard. He has a hard road to undo many of his behaviors but in short, he came to RAM to get rid of a bad tooth and the doctors there likely saved his life.
I didn’t take any photos since it looked just like the other RAM events. But photos were not my goal, interactions were. In total 323 patients were seen and $220,000 in services were provided. Mission well accomplished.
Dan