An anesthesia crisis or emergency does not end when the patient is stable. Once the immediate crisis has passed, the team still needs a structured pause: What happened? What went well? What was confusing? What should change before the next emergency? A good debrief turns stress into learning and gives Read More …
Cardiac arrest in the OR is challenging both to recognize as well as to treat. You must be able to work the causal diagnosis in the face of some potentially complex anesthetic, surgical and comorbid combinations. At the same time you must perform a resuscitation, often in the face of ongoing surgery. Getting prepared for rare events is often more challenging than preparing for regular events. When a rare event happens the shock and fear induced by the event can erase protocol from the most prepared mind. This article shares learnings from my years of experience attending to emergency resuscitations and management of cardiac arrests in the OR. Read More …