List Archives

Thu Oct 5 19:15:21 BST 2006

Karim et al,

to start off I work in Canada...not the US...this may be a key in the 
way we do things, so...

1)in Montreal, there are 2 level 1 trauma centers, the MGH being 
one...it is run by a dedicated group of TTL's...(approx 50/50 btwn. 
emergentologists/trauma surgeons)

2)although our trauma surgeons are great (trained in the US) in large I 
think they would rather us handle a difficult airway, place a quick 
central line, handle the initials of an obviously toxidromic trauma 
patient, etc...

3)have heard from 1)recent colleague, EM trained, who recently went 
down to NYC to take on a position of TTL/EM doc as well as 2)our EM 
residents who go down south to Miami/Baltimore...what they reports is 
shocking to us, even if it were only half true,...i.e. reminiscent of 
what Karim alluded to...no thinking surgeons, wanting only the 
obviously OR material but couldn't be bothered to take anything else, 
PanCT without thinking critically...

from the excellent handling of the recent Dawson college shooting 
massacre as a group of physicians (trauma surgeons/Emergentologists)we 
have learned the following:

1)we have to work together
2) we complement each other
3)we need to leave egos at the door

Joe
Joe Nemeth MD
Emergency Medicine
Montreal Children's Hospital
Montreal General Hospital
McGill University

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