# The Emperor's New Scrubs



## mycrofft (May 4, 2014)

What medical or prehospital rescue device have you personally enountered which doesn't work (as advertised)? ESPECIALLY if others all swear by it?


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## NJEMT95 (May 4, 2014)

Definitely SpiderStraps. Personally, I think they are a great idea if used well. But since they always get tangled and seem to stick to everything except themselves, they tend to be more trouble than they're worth. Also, they always get "lost." I prefer just using cravats.


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## OnceAnEMT (May 4, 2014)

NJEMT95 said:


> Definitely SpiderStraps. Personally, I think they are a great idea if used well. But since they always get tangled and seem to stick to everything except themselves, they tend to be more trouble than they're worth. Also, they always get "lost." I prefer just using cravats.



That or just have ties pre-tied and call it a day.


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## NomadicMedic (May 4, 2014)

Res-q-pod.


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## mycrofft (May 4, 2014)

DEmedic said:


> Res-q-pod.


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## lido (May 8, 2014)

Jesus...does anyone still use the resqpod?


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## UnkiEMT (May 8, 2014)

NJEMT95 said:


> Definitely SpiderStraps. Personally, I think they are a great idea if used well. But since they always get tangled and seem to stick to everything except themselves, they tend to be more trouble than they're worth. Also, they always get "lost." I prefer just using cravats.



Spider straps are wonderfully useful, so long as two things are true. First, you have to make sure they're stowed correctly, which means you have to make sure that every time you use them, or the jackass crew that grabs your truck on your days off, uses them, they're velcroed back appropriately.  Second, you and you're partner have to have sufficient rapport that they go on in sync, if your partner is a strap or three ahead of you, or if they pull too much of the slack to their side, spiders are useless. If they go on as naturally as raising or lowering the stretcher (before the power stretchers), they save you major amounts of time and stress.


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## mycrofft (May 8, 2014)

*The so-called abdominal pad or "5X9"  (aka "Kotex")*

For emergency use, I'm thinking about people using combine dressings  for heavy bleeding. These are the compresses with a sheer nonwoven sealed skin surrounding a hyper-absorptive core of lint. Cut one and you'll see.

It isn't that the product is such a bomb, but that it is designed (and the packaging says so) for _drainage not bleeding_; the clot forms up in the compress not on the wound. For most bleeding, which is self-limiting anyway, this seems to work and victory is declared. When it's a real bleeder, then you get soggy bloody pads. 

And dealers will sell them to emergency responders up to puptent-sized!

Good for splint padding, albeit expensive. Also useful for putting the next layer on a real gauze dressing which is bleeding through, although more pressure and thinking about a TK are probably the first orders of business.


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## teedubbyaw (May 8, 2014)

lido said:


> Jesus...does anyone still use the resqpod?




They're good for the fire fighters that want to bag at 1 breath a second.


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## mycrofft (May 9, 2014)

*Airways of the past*






The Chokesaver was in use before the Eighties.

Let me add…the bite stick:





Get it wet and slippery, squeeze the end you're holding tighter, and hey-presto, it takes off like a watermelon seed... into the pt's mouth.


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## usalsfyre (Jun 11, 2014)

Demand Valves
Epinephrine in cardiac arrest 
Disposable vents 
Paper linens
The Viewmax laryngoscope blade 
The old O2 powered "thumpers"
The retractable butterfly needles


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