Gary Sinise American Hero caring for Americas Heros

Gary Sinise once again steps up to the plate caring for one of Americas rare, now 4th,  Quadriplegic War survivors US Army Sgt Travis Mills. I had guessed playing the roll of  Lt Dan had an impact on him but I found out he has been a doer for others far before that roll. Garys humanitarian and philanthropic work is vast. He is only the third actor in history to have received the Presidential Citizens Medal. His foundation The Gary Sinise Foundation is a great one to donate through. garysinisefoundation.org

EPI Autoinjector Deadly Warning

EPI Autoinjector Deadly Warning  

To The Editor:

We suspect most of your readers are familiar with the EPIPEN.  Its black needle tip and grey safety cap has been a standard for almost 40 years. In the fall of 2010, the EPIPEN colors were changed: the black needle end became orange and the grey safety cap became blue.  Other changes were made to the EPIPEN autoinjector that might not be readily apparent to all providers or users, especially in the excitement of a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. Photo for clarity may be seen at Wildernessmedicine.com on our blog.  One of them is not epinephrine, but might find its way into your hands or your patients, and would allow a patient in anaphylaxis to die. There is no warning that it is not epinephrine despite its nearly identical appearance to traditional epinephrine autoinjectors. The drug name administered by the non-epinephrine autoinjector is Alsuma, an anti-migraine medication. The new EPIPEN is oval, same length and colors. Studies have shown 9 year old EPIPENs still have 63% efficacy (FR Estelle Simons J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2000 May;105(5):1025-30.) and many consumers and physicians are aware of this, so it is likely we will have this problem for several more years. We urge all Alsuma autoinjectors be labeled NOT EPI in red and black letters on the white container. There are other EPI autoinjectors in a white container. This warning and request for relabeling is being sent to the FDA who we hope will require Alsuma to apply strong adhesive labels to device and case saying NOT EPI until both can be redesigned to more clearly differentiate this product from epinephrine autoinjectors.

Carl Weil, NREMT-I/C, FAWM

Director, Wilderness Medicine Outfitters

Education Director, Anaphylaxiseducators.com

Elizabeth, Colorado

carl@wildernessmedicine.com

David Fitzpatrick, MD, FAWM FAAFP

Anaphylactic specialist and patient

Goosecreek, South Carolina

Seth C. Hawkins, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, FAWM

Morganton, NC

Photo 1- 5 different auto injectors

Photo 2- 3 different” Epipen” autoinjectors

Photo 3- 2 identical safety end caps -EPIPEN and ALSUMA

Photo 4- Labeled Alsuma case

Freedom- thanks

We are only free thanks to our veterans who paid for our freedom with their blood--
Interesting that Veterans day and the Marine Corp Birthday are one day apart-
10% VETERANS DAY MED KIT DISCOUNT IF ORDERED BY NOV 21 by a veteran.
Unfortunately some who make it home have difficulty fitting back in here at home
- More than 1 in 3 homeless persons are veterans. Tonight, approximately 131,000 veterans will sleep in cardboard boxes, alleys, under bridges, on bus shelter benches. Please help those you can.

ACAI

Carl --Have you ever heard of the ACAI Berry? It suppose to be great for weight loss. Let me know.DG
Answer I have been taking 3 to 4 oz for 16 months--over all it is healthy-one of the strong antioxidants but not a noticeable weight loss substance. There are several multi level markets but I found a lower cost yet high percentage is found in NOW brand at vitamin cottage

New Boy Scout WFA required program

A New Boy Scout of America Wilderness First Aid program was unveiled Aug 1 2009
This completely changes what courses Scout Leaders must take effective March 2010.
For detailed information and how you might be involved visit our new web site
www.WFA-BSA.com. You can get a free on line WFA lesson by logging in with your email contact for coming up dates.

Should all WFR students pass?

WMO's answer is they will Only pass if the are all practically competent! That means they must be able in written testing, practical excessive and scenario testing to give very good care. That is the care WMOs pool of instructors would want to personally receive if in need of help. So what about the student who did not study hard enough to pass a written or just makes bad decisions on a scenario final? School is practice and as such we feel it is a learning experience and mistakes can be remedied in school. The student is given topics to review from their class work and write essays on that are discussed with an instructor and polished until well done. This year we had 8 out of hundreds who were not proficient at class end. often this is because the student does not really study which includes written work. The written work of all 8 was substandard and when reviewed clearly did not follow the guidelines given. Two of the eight were current college students who chose not to do the work as instructed and did not pass.Two were college graduates, one of whom just never turned the work in even though he was so close to passing. The other, a first primary year teacher, felt they knew it and should not have to prove and promised to bad mouth WMO if we did not pass her- we did not pass her. Of the four of eight that started their work two were the least school educated and worked most on it. One of them, barely a high school grad worked and worked until he actually not only learned data but showed in his essays [16 pages]practical use of it. He earned the certificate and was awarded it with my congratulations.
WMO wants all to pass and our instructors work hard to make that happen but the student must do the work and walk the walk on their own as they will be in the emergency on their own.

NEW Wilderness First Aid 16 hr industry standards.

Today, Nov 02 marks a cooperative work smoothly done in the Wilderness Medicine community. This was done from start to finish over 90 days. It appears to be a easily modified living document compared to the Boy Scouts 16 hr WFA which states no change till 2014. Tod Schimelpfenig did the hard work of collecting ideas and coordinating this new standard of "Minimum Guidelines and Scope of Practice" for Wilderness First Aid (WFA). This consensus document involving seven leading wilderness teaching schools shows our willing to promote industry standards. WMO is pleased to be not just one of the seven but to have contributed actual lines of content to this project. This is the third of this type of industry project for me wnd WMO. The first two were: the 1999 Wilderness Medicine Society [WMS] minimum WFR 68 hour standards and the WMS Wilderness first Aid teaching program turned over to National Safety Council now run by Emergency Care and Safety Institute. You may read this new minimum standard on WMO s web site under classes/ 16 hr WFA SOP.(PDF file, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). The link is http://media.wildernessmedicine.com/WFA-SOP-Nov02.pdf.