Bringing the hospital to the patient

B.C. HEROS medical director Dr. M.J. Slabbert, a prehospital-trained emergency medicine specialist, now working in Prince George as the intensive care unit medical director at University Hospital of Northern B.C., is featured in a documentary which followed her to the scene of a pedestrian-motor vehicle accident in North London, England.

At the time, Dr. Slabbert was working for London Air Ambulance and she arrived on the scene in a helicopter which landed in a nearby field. The video shows Slabbert working to stabilize the critically-injured patient, an adult male with two broken ankles, internal abdominal injuries and extensive lacerations of his face and arms.

The “treat and transport” method of prehospital care shown in the documentary helps save the lives of three critically-injured patients. By bringing the hospital to the patient within the Golden Hour, the chances of survival increase significantly and the morbidity of injuries and serious medical conditions can be substantially reduced. M.J.’s initial concern to set the man’s broken legs at the scene restored blood flow and nerve connectivity and likely prevented would have resulted in an amputation.

The three doctors demonstrate why British Columbians should continue to demand of their provincial politicians that they scrap the “scoop and run” approach to emergency patient care outside of a hospital and adopt a modernized method of prehospital care throughout the province which allows doctors and/or advanced care paramedics to arrive with pain-killing drugs, blood products, and advanced live-saving techniques, the likes of which have been used in other provinces and countries for decades. This is a proven method that saves lives, whether that patient lays injured on the streets of Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna or Prince George or in a rural and remote region of our province. There is a better way and it’s time we gave our emergency care system a 21st century upgrade.

You can watch M.J. in action here: