"I" "O", "I" "O", It's Through The Bone We Go...

Had an inservice today at work. (After working all night on only 90 mins of sleep)-----Bonus shift, but we'll go into that later.---

We had an inservice on a new Intraosseous decice. Called the EZ-IO™. It's a pretty cool little device.

What's an intraosseious device?
Itra-(Into)
Osseious-(Bone)

It's a device for drilling into the bone to start an IV when all other routes have failed and you have a critical patient in need of life saving fluids or drugs.
This new device is really, really cool.

What we have had to do in the past is take this HUGE needle, and jam it into the Tibia and twist, and push and twist and grind it into place.
More specifically, Tibia. In the Medial aspect (toward the middle) from the Tibial Tuberosity, on the flat anterior (front) aspect of the bone.
It was pretty brutal.

This is a nice, quick and neat procedure done with an high speed drill instead of brute force. Makes this cool, high-pitched whirrr, like the dentist office drill.
You don't really feel a lot of resistance as it burrs through the flesh and into the bone until you make your way into the Spongiform.

It's so easy that you need to be careful with really small children and infants because if you're not paying close enough attention, you can go right through the other side and into your hand. But, it's much less traumatic on the limb than the previous method.

The training Video had these Orthopedic docs drilling these into each other.
They were wide awake, with no analgesics (Pain Meds) on board.
These cats were laughing and smiling....I'm oh, so glad that we did not have that option, because I would have been obligated to be the first to volunteer and I would not have enjoyed it as much as the docs...shooot, I don't get paid a billionth of a percent of what they make in thier inservice to have that done to me.

Oh, and the Tibia Infusion is almost as quick as an IV infusion.

Man, what more can you ask for in a job?
Driving at high speeds with lights and sirens, blood...guts....smashed vehicles...and NOW using power tools on people.

Have I ever said that I love my job?