Ninth emergency symposium in Memmingen

Created: 11/23/2022, 1:30 p.m

In order to be well prepared in the event of suffocation, various ventilation techniques were introduced at the symposium.

Clockwise from left: Workshop leaders Dr.

Ralph Pallacks and Dr.

Christian Weidmann and Gerhard Sollich from the Emergency Gäu team.

© Häfele

Memmingen - Serious suffocation, severe burns and life-threatening hypothermia - these demanding topics dealt with almost 400 participants from clinics, practices and rescue services at the ninth emergency symposium "Notfallgäu", who had come to the Memmingen town hall at the invitation of the Memmingen Clinic.

According to the hospital's press release, special attention was paid to children's emergencies.

Children's emergencies significantly different from the operations with adult accident victims," ​​emphasized Dr.

Rupert Grashey, Chief Physician at the Department of Disaster and Emergency Medicine at Klinikum Memmingen and the main organizer of the symposium.

However, because there is often a lack of routine in child emergencies and the nervousness of the rescuers is correspondingly high, the emergency physician Grashey has put various child emergency scenarios at the top of the agenda of the two-day symposium under the heading "Small challenges".

"Peanuts, coins, buttons or small Lego parts - in the event of suffocation, we unfortunately have very little time with our little patients," emphasized the head of neonatology at the Memmingen Clinic, Dr.

Ralf Pallacks.

At the packed airway management workshop, the pediatric intensive care physician held a wheat glass against a small shot glass, comparing an adult's much greater oxygen reserve to that of a child.

However, placing a ventilation tube in small patients is not that easy: "The neck is shorter, the epiglottis larger, everything is much narrower and also swells up faster," Grashey describes the difficulties.

On the other hand, if a swallowed foreign body ends up in the stomach instead of the trachea, it is usually excreted naturally.

However, Pallacks warned against sharp and edgy objects, which is why he and his colleagues have already taken the driver's door of a Matchbox car from a child's body in addition to pins and broken-off parts of braces during gastroscopy.

An underestimated danger also emanates from swallowed button batteries, where contact with the moist mucous membranes causes a current to flow, which in some cases permanently damages the esophagus, explained senior physician Pallacks: "This can result in severe and life-threatening chemical burns of the mucous membranes."

Dr.

Martin Fiedermutz, medical director of the Immenstadt, Sonthofen and Oberstdorf clinics, impressively using the example of the attempted mountain rescue of two hikers.

The dramatic rescue operation near Oberstdorf in February of this year had to be interrupted due to heavy snowfall and strong gusts of wind when a member of the mountain rescue service was already with the stuck hikers.

It was not clear whether and how the rescuer would get out of this life-threatening situation.

He was later taken to hospital with hypothermia.

The two climbers did not survive the accident.

Experts from Würzburg, Murnau and Munich illustrated various therapy methods for victims of burns and poisoning, for example through carbon monoxide, under the heading "Fresh Dangerous".

"This odorless respiratory poison triggered a large-scale operation in the Memmingen ice rink just a few weeks ago and led to a large number of patients in the Memmingen clinic within a very short time," Grashey looked back.

In order for such unusual operations to run smoothly, regular practice and exchange between the professional groups involved in emergency rescue is important.

This is exactly what the organizer Grashey wants to achieve with his symposium, which took place for the ninth time after a two-year Corona break and led to a visitor record with almost 400 participants.