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Fri Apr 7 17:23:07 BST 2006

I am not sure what is the thinking behind this question--there is NO indication for clamping a chest tube--what blood is coming out is already lost and needs to be evacuated anyway, and if bleeding is still ongoing, clamping the tube will NOT stop it!!  I am not sure how many ways one can continue saying the same thing before someone finally gets the message!  For continued bleeding, the OR is the next step, NOT clamping a chest tube which can only harm and not help the patient.  Just because you do not see the blood does NOT mean it is not there and continuing!  If the nearest hospital capable of taking a patient to the OR is 4 hours away, well, that's a bad situation--but you will not help it by clamping the tube (where would this patient be--the North Pole?)
ERF

-----Original Message-----
From: HAXScott at aol.com
To: trauma-list at trauma.org
Sent: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 10:11:51 EDT
Subject: Re: Clamp the the chest tube in an EMS placed chest tube

What if the trauma center is four hours travel time, and there isn't  
anything in-between? Except for moose on the highway? 
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Clamp the the chest tube in an EMS placed chest tube