On this week's episode of Critical Incident, Paramedic Dylan Kessler tells the harrowing story of performing his first cricothyrotomy on a live (barely) patient under less than ideal circumstances.
This was my first attempt at interviewing someone I did not know beforehand. I also decided to just "wing it" instead of making a written outline in advance to help guide the conversation. What you will hear is an entirely spontaneous conversation between two people who are just meeting for the first time so I hope that vibe comes through in the finished episode. I'm writing this post prior to editing the audio so I'm hoping I did not sound like too much of an idiot! The irony of me making a podcast is that I really am not a very good conversationalist. I would much rather listen than talk, which is why I love doing interviews. It's very unlikely, however, that I will ever come up with any brilliant, insightful follow-up questions on the spot like real journalists seem to be able to do.
Thinking about our conversation, I'm struck by how unfair it is for medical professionals to be put in situations like this where we are expected to perform complex skills with life-or-death consequences having only very minimal training/experience with those skills. Dylan rose to the occasion and unquestionably saved his patient's life, but what if it had gone the other way? Can you imagine living with the weight of thinking a person died because you failed to perform a procedure that you are supposedly qualified to perform? How is it acceptable for educational institutions and medical organizations to send providers out into the world to take on that responsibility without ever having actually performed a given skill? Would you let a surgeon operate on you knowing he/she had only ever practiced the procedure on a simulator?
Systemic issues aside, this is a great story with a perfect ending. Just listening to it gave me chills! Thanks so much to Mr. Kessler for sharing and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
- Jody
