Trauma team

I knew when I signed up for a full year at the South Pole that I would automatically be part of an Emergency Response Team, since our wintering group of 45 has to be totally self-sufficient once the last plane leaves in mid-February. What I didn't anticipate is that I would somehow get roped into being the team lead for the Medical/Trauma response team (talk about the blind leading the blind!) or that I would have the opportunity to continue to learn so much (well, considering I'm starting from nothing) about emergency medicine. Every Thursday morning, we have an hour-long Medical Team meeting (there are 8 of us on the team this summer, 4 of whom will be staying for the winter) followed by a second hour of Clinic Assistant training, where the awesome summer doc, Sarah, teaches us all kinds of things that in a million years I never imagined I would get to learn/try.

Last month, we learned how to start IVs...

...and practiced on each other. I managed to get one into my patient patient, fellow winter-over R, on the first try, which I hope wasn't a total fluke (SR sometimes says he'll let me practice on him and then sometimes recants, so we'll see) because it was very exciting. And then everyone wanted to try to put an IV into the veins of my hands, which look like easy targets, but turns out they roll a lot, and all I ended up with was some bruising. (This picture is for you, Mom, with your weird love of bruises!)

Very curious to see what else this year of unexpected medical training opportunities will bring! The day after the IV practice, we had our surprise monthly Emergency Response Team drill scenario, where this time a community member was pretending to be unconscious and severely bleeding while tangled up in a ladder in the -60 degree underground fuel arches, and we all had to figure out how extricate and treat and package and transport him to the medical center on the second floor of the station--an hour-long drill involving about 50 people. We're learning as we go what to do, and just hoping that each month's drill goes a little more smoothly than the previous month's--and above all that the occasion doesn't arise where we're in that sort of situation for real but that we'll be prepared to cope with it if it does. Luckily, among our winter-over crew, we'll have a doctor of emergency medicine, two professional physician's assistants, at least one professional EMT/fire-fighter, and an army medic--plus those rag-tag few of us who have just gotten some training along the way of this particular experience. Pretty decent for a group of 45, and in any case, what we'll have to work with, come what may!