An Emergency Tracheotomy

[Olivio]

Why isn't this taught on first aid courses?

Have you done one?

What is the safest way to preform one as I was talking to a friend who lost her child because he had something stuck in his windpipe and the backslaps and heimrich didn't work so I wondered wouldn't it have possibly save his life to make an emergency incision in his windpipe so he could have breathed instead of turning blue and dying a horrible death?

Thoughts?

[anneasquith]

It's a very specialized procedure., I doubt it's suitable as a '' first aid " tool .

[woofgang]

its not just a question of poking a hole and stuffing a biro tube into it. DO NOT try this one at home!

[Olivio]

If you're faced with someone who is going to die wouldn't it be worth trying to save them or just watching them suffocating to death and hope the emergency services turn up in time?

Personally I'f risk it but only after long research online.

Why is it such a no no?

[Baldric]

Your starter for 10, away you go, good luck!

http://www.tracheostomy.com/resources/surgery/emergency.htm

[Olivio]

Thanks Baldric that seems straightforward enough. I just read an entry on waking and was just going to say to the 2 other posters now I know what they mean as it appears to be extremely difficult. Try and make sense of this compared to your link Baldric.

"“Two small scalpels, one short grooved director, a tenaculum, two aneurysm needles which may be used as retractors, one pair of artery forceps, haemostatic forceps, two pairs of dissecting forceps, a pair of scissors, a sharp-pointed tenotome, a pair of tracheal forceps, a tracheal dilator, tracheotomy tubes, ligatures, sponges, a flexible catheter, and feathers”.[5]

Haemostatic forceps were used to control bleeding from separated vessels that were not ligatured because of the urgency of the operation. Generally, they were used to expose the trachea by clamping the isthmus thyroid gland on both sides. To open the trachea physically, a sharp-pointed tentome allowed the surgeon easily to place the ends into the opening of the trachea. The thin points permitted the doctor a better view of his incision. Tracheal dilators, such as the “Golding Bird”, were placed through the opening and then expanded by “turning the screw to which they are attached.” Tracheal forceps, as displayed on the right, were commonly used to extract foreign bodies from the larynx. The optimum tracheal tube at the time caused very little damage to the trachea and “mucus membrane”"

^ I mean...What the hell?

[douglas9401]

It's not taught in first-aid classes to avoid lengthy court cases involving those who believe that because they've 'done the course' they're due a white coat and stethoscope.

[Buenchico]

It's worrying enough that some first-aiders rush to use the Heimlich manoeuvre (which can cause serious damage to internal organs) as soon as someone starts coughing and spluttering because they've got something stuck in their windpipe. It should be used as a LAST resort, NOT a first one! I hate to think what those same first-aiders would do if amateur tracheotomy was included in their course!

As Douglas mentions, litigation is never far away. When I was teaching (and in charge of first aid in the school), a 14yo lad severed an artery when he put his wrist through a wired-plate-glass door. (He was being chased by his mates with a van of 'fart spray' and tried to push open a door which needed to be pulled). A fellow first-aider and I controlled the bleeding and had everything under control by the time the paramedics arrived. Did we get thanked by his mother for saving his life? Of course not. She simply instructed a solicitor to look for ways of suing us!