Deliver quality healthcare in the most challenging field conditions Full of practical clinical pearls and proven strategies, this indispensible guide shows you how to operate outside your comfort zone and devise effective treatment solutions when the traditional tools (medications, equipment, and staff) are unavailable—or when you need to provide care outside of your specialty. Improvised Medicine is a must for anyone who plans to work in global, disaster, or other resource-poor settings. FEATURES: Simple-to-follow directions, diagrams, and illustrations describe practical techniques and the improvised equipment necessary to provide quality care during crises. Contains improvisations in anesthesia and airway management, dentistry, gynecology/obstetrics, infectious disease/laboratory diagnosis, internal medicine, otolaryngology, pediatrics and malnutrition, orthopedics, psychiatry, and surgery. Also includes basic disaster communication techniques, post-disaster forensics, a model hospital disaster plan, and innovative patient-transport methods. LEARN HOW TO: Make an endotracheal tube in seconds Perform digital-oral and blind-nasotracheal intubations Make plaster bandages for splints/casts Give open-drop ether, ketamine drips, and halothane Use subcutaneous/intraperitoneal rehydration/transfusion Make ORS and standard nutrition formulas Clean, disinfect, and sterilize equipment for reuse Warm blood units in seconds inexpensively Take/view stereoscopic x-rays with standard equipment Quickly and easily stop postpartum hemorrhage Fashion surgical equipment from common items Evacuate patients easily for high-rise hospitals Make esophageal and precordial stethoscopes Quickly improvise a saline lock Make ECG electrode/defibrillator pads and ultrasound gel
Deliver quality healthcare in the most challenging field conditions Comprehensive yet compact, practical, and enduring, Improvised Medicine: Providing Care in Extreme Environments, Second Edition, is the one book to toss into your bag when going to practice medicine in global, disaster, or other resource-poor settings, including theaters of war, regions of civil unrest, and economically deprived areas. Full of practical clinical pearls and field-tested strategies, this indispensable guide provides detailed instructions on how to work successfully outside of your comfort zone. It demonstrates how to devise effective treatment solutions when the traditional tools (medications, equipment, and staff) are unavailable or when providing care outside your primary area of expertise. In any crisis, from power failures and computer crashes to floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes, knowing how to deal with the unique challenges encountered saves lives and communities. This reference gives you that knowledge and inspires innovative crisis resolution. FROM REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION: "Dr Iserson has given us a most remarkable book. Many readers may be familiar with David Werner's lay healthworker book, Where There Is No Doctor; this new volume could be titled Where There Is a Doctor–But No Stuff. Drawing from his experience providing care in international, wilderness, and disaster settings, he has compiled an impressive collection of bare-bones equipment and work-around strategies to provide the best possible care in resource-poor settings. While presenting many creative examples, the purpose of the book is not to offer an exhaustive list of solutions to missing resource challenges but to inspire creativity in readers who may find themselves needing to improvise." -- Family Medicine “There is a lot of material here and, if nothing else, it may motivate more people to practice low-tech medicine and be willing to go where health care is dependent more on caring than on cost. I recommend this book to anyone who must practice in austere environments, and it will be in my rucksack when I respond to the next disaster.” – The Journal of Emergency Medicine FEATURES: ·Simple-to-follow directions, diagrams, and illustrations describing practical techniques and improvised equipment necessary to provide quality care during crises ·Contains improvisations in anesthesia and airway management, dentistry, gynecology/obstetrics, infectious disease/laboratory diagnosis, internal medicine, otolaryngology, pediatrics and malnutrition, orthopedics, psychiatry, and surgery ·Covers situational analysis and basic needs in a crisis; specific triage, diagnosis, and stabilization efforts; medical interventions for surgical and non-surgical problems; and debunks some commonly reported improvised techniques ·Features public health measures, basic disaster communication techniques, post-disaster forensics, a model hospital disaster plan, and innovative patient-transport methods ·New to the second edition: More concisely written, more extensively illustrated, and updated improvisations and references LEARN HOW TO: ·Make an endotracheal tube in seconds ·Perform digital-oral and blind-nasotracheal intubations ·Make plaster bandages for splints/casts ·Give open-drop ether, ketamine drips, and halothane ·Use subcutaneous/intraperitoneal rehydration/transfusion ·Make ORS and standard nutrition formulas ·Clean, disinfect, and sterilize equipment for reuse ·Warm blood units in seconds inexpensively ·Take/view stereoscopic x-rays with standard equipment ·Quickly and easily stop postpartum hemorrhage ·Fashion surgical equipment from common items ·Build an evaporative refrigerator ·Make esophageal and precordial stethoscopes ·Quickly improvise a saline lock ·Make ECG electrode/defibrillator pads and ultrasound gel ·Evacuate patients easily from high-rise hospitals
An urgent picture of medical care in our cities, written by an emergency room physician (and co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Pact) who grew up in the very neighborhood he is now serving “A pull-no-punches look at health care from a seldom-heard sector . . . Living and Dying isn’t a sky-is-falling chronicle. It’s a real, gutsy view of a city hospital.”—Essence In this book, Dr. Sampson Davis looks at the healthcare crisis in the inner city from a rare perspective: as a doctor who works on the front line of emergency medical care in the community where he grew up, and as a member of that community who has faced the same challenges as the people he treats every day. He also offers invaluable practical advice for those living in such communities, where conditions like asthma, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and AIDS are disproportionately endemic. Dr. Davis’s sister, a drug addict, died of AIDS; his brother is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of a bar fight; and he himself did time in juvenile detention—a wake-up call that changed his life. He recounts recognizing a young man who is brought to the E.R. with critical gunshot wounds as someone who was arrested with him when he was a teenager during a robbery gone bad; describes a patient whose case of sickle-cell anemia rouses an ethical dilemma; and explains the difficulty he has convincing his landlord and friend, an older woman, to go to the hospital for much-needed treatment. With empathy and hard-earned wisdom, Living and Dying in Brick City is an important resource guide for anyone at risk, anyone close to those at risk, and anyone who cares about the fate of our cities.
Whether it's a war zone or a civil disaster area, traumatic injuries often occur in remote, unsanitary locations. This book teaches advanced field procedures for small wound repair, care of the infected wound, IV therapy, pain control, amputations, treatment of burns, airway procedures and more.
This comprehensive "must-have" for every pre-med student details every step from high school through MCATs, interviews, and acceptance into medical school.
"Sudden, unexpected death notification stresses everyone involved. Grave Words: Notifying Survivors about Sudden, Unexpected Deaths provides a way to ease the pain a little - for notifier and survivor alike. It explains, step by step, how to relate tragic news to survivors by providing true-life case studies, in-depth information, and protocols tailored to a variety of situations." "Protocols for death notification by physicians, nurses, emergency medical services personnel, chaplains, medical examiners or coroners, and police officers are detailed in the book. Also included are bereavement resources and support groups, a death-notification course outline, police and military in-line-of-duty notification protocols, and airline disaster protocols."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
In our culture, we rarely speak about death -- partly because it is seen as a sort of pornography, shrouded in indecency and immersed in taboos; and partly because we know so little about it. Yet nearly everyone at some point has questions about what happens after death. At long last, here is a book to answer many of those questions: What physical changes occur to a dead body?
Defend yourself with salad tongs, hairbrushes--and even a dirty diaper! A sidewalk thief tries to steal your wallet, but you are unarmed. What do you do? With A Guide to Improvised Weaponry, you'll know how to protect yourself--even if all you have are your car keys and a candy bar. Written by Green Beret and combat expert Terry Schappert, this book teaches you how to turn your lipstick, your wristwatch--even the shoes on your feet--into strategic self-defense tools. Traditional weapons can be expensive, dangerous, and in the blur of an attack, easily turned against you, but with his life-saving advice, you can avoid these risks and defend yourself by deploying the hidden tactical uses of 100 ordinary items. Whether you're out grocery shopping, riding in an elevator, or enjoying a stroll through the park, A Guide to Improvised Weaponry shows you how to control your environment and become your own bodyguard--ready and able to act when you need to.
Based on Dr. Auerbach's renowned Wilderness Medicine text, Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition, is your portable, authoritative guide to the full range of medical and emergency situations that occur in non-traditional settings. Useful for experienced physicians as well as advanced practice providers, this unique medical guide covers an indispensable range of topics in a well-illustrated, highly condensed format – in print or on any mobile device – for quick access anytime, anywhere. - An easy-access presentation ensures rapid retrieval and comprehension of wilderness medical information, with "Signs and Symptoms" and "Treatment" sections, bulleted lists, and quick-reference text boxes in every chapter. - All chapters are thoroughly up to date, including new information on travel medicine, medications, immunizations, and field treatment of common conditions. - Step-by-step explanations from wilderness medicine experts cover the clinical presentation and treatment of a full range of wilderness emergencies and show you how to improvise with available materials. - Comprehensive coverage includes dive medicine and water-related emergencies, mountain medicine and wilderness survival, global humanitarian relief and disaster medicine, high-altitude medicine, pain management, and much more. - Line drawings and color plates help you quickly an accurately identify skin manifestations, plants, poisonous mushrooms, snakes, insects, and more. - Useful appendices address everything from environment-specific situations to lists of essential supplies, medicines, and many additional topics of care.
