WA Lawmakers Ask University to Stop Training Paramedics on Live Pigs

It's a procedure in which paramedics cut into a person's neck to create an emergency airway. And, at the University of Washington, prospective paramedics learn to do it on live pigs. Now some Washington lawmakers want to end to that practice.   Paramedics don’t need to cut open the throat of a pig when they have other options,” Rep. Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo, said. “I would like to see the university take responsibility and to search out different ways to solve these situations.   "It seems to me that we need to be more considerate.”   Appleton is one of eight members of the House who signed a letter in January suggesting the UW consider “replacing animals with modern training methods.”  (Read more...) I have witnessed many advances born in the animal lab:  tibia and humeral IO insertion techniques and effects, trauma resuscitation and the use/impact of the ZOLL ResQGard,  hemostatic dressings by Special Forces and Tactical paramedics, tourniquet application and use of the ITClamp, speed and ease-of-use of rapid infusion fluid guns, the resuscitation of swine in cardiac arrest through use of quality and consistent/uninterrupted CPR, use of the ZOLL ResQPod (Impedance Threshold Device), head-up (30 degree torso elevation) compressions that result in reduced intracranial pressure and better cardiac perfusion of the brain and ECMO in difficult-to-convert vfib.  These are major advances that have been greatly facilitated b...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Training News Source Type: news