What Is Muscular Dystrophy Anyway?

Since we’ve been talking about the fill the boot campaign the annual MDA telethon, why not use our “what is” series to take a closer look at the group of diseases we commonly refer to as muscular dystrophy.

While most EMS caregivers have a general idea of what to expect in a muscular dystrophy presentation, few of us are as knowledgeable as we should be about what muscular dystrophy is and what it does to the body. Let’s take a closer look.

While we tead to refer to muscular dystrophy as a single defined disease process, it is actually a group of disease that share some common characteristics. Add to that the fact that all of these diseases are degenerative in nature and you can imagine how remarkably different these patients can be.

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Test For Unconsciousness: The Hand Drop

After I wrote a recent article on the benefits of the face flick for assessing level of consciousness, I received a string of questions and commentary on the effectiveness of another, more well known assessment for unconsiousness - the hand drop test.

The hand drop test is considerably more well known than its cousin the face flick and it remains a fairly reliable, though somewhat controversial test.

There’s a reason why the hand drop test is so well known. It tends to work. It’s a clever and reliable way to force a patient to make a decision and reveal their true mental status.

When done properly it’s harmless and does not require forcing pain or noxious stimuli on the patient. It also has the advantage of  being appropriate to perform in front of family and loved ones. Unlike the face flick which is a bit to obnoxious for public consumption, the hand drop can be performed anywhere and looks like a fairly standard neurological test. If you don’t have this one in your tool box yet, it’s time to add it. If you do know it, let’s review it. There are some subtle elements to doing the hand drop test accurately and safely.

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EMS Response To Sexual Assault

A Guest Post By: Jimmy Futrelle

The EMT Spot would like to welcome Jimmy Futrelle to our guest post roster. Jimmy s a Paramedic hailing from Scurry County Texas. Jimmy has been responding on calls long enough to remember the Lifepack 5 and using D50 as a diagnostic tool. His unique background working for private and public EMS as well as for local law enforcement makes him uniquely qualified to teach on the subject of sexual assault.

This detailed guide to responding to these challenging calls is well worth reading. I sincerely thank him for this contribution.   

Responding To Sexual Assault

Introduction

Sexual assault is possibly the most devastating form of assault perpetrated on another human being.  The legal definition of sexual assault is “any genital, anal or oral penetration by a part of the accused’s body or by an object, using force or without the victim’s consent.”

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey reports that over 500,000 women and approximately 49,000 men report being sexually assaulted each year. It is estimated that 1 in 5 women will victims of rape by the time they are 21 years of age.  61% of reported rape victims are less than 18 years old. 1 in 7 women will be raped by their partners. Only 16% of rapes are ever reported to the police.

Let us not confuse sexual assault with sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is repeated instances of sexual assault occurring over a period of time, generally by a person familiar to the victim. Whereas this crime is no less devastating, we are going to focus on the act of sexual assault.

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