Air Methods Prehospital EDucation (AMPED) Podcast

Air Methods Prehospital EDucation (AMPED) Podcast

This is the AMPED Air Methods Prehospital EDucation (AMPED) podcast brought to you by Air Methods, a leader in air medical transport, with the mission to deliver critical care discussion and content to both the prehospital and in-hospital care providers through clinician interviews and expert clinical commentary.

Episodes

September 16, 2026 32 mins
When a patient experiences profound cardiogenic shock, a patient might receive an intra-aortic balloon pump, a device that is timed directly to the cardiac cycle that inflates and deflates to augment coronary profusion. Or they might receive an impella, an axial flow archimedes screw that continuously pulls blood forward through the aortic valve. Both devices share the same ultimate objective: Keeping a failing heart ali...
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One of the most basic skills an Air Methods team member should have is knowing how to intubate properly. Understanding how to do that properly is a prerequisite for the job. But knowing when to intubate, and in the particular case of this month's patient, knowing when NOT to intubate is most crucial. Our team is tasked with transferring our patient Myles who was experiencing acute respiratory distress, but in their asses...
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A young man in his 20s experiences a head-on collision with a tree that leaves him in profound shock, and not exhibiting the symptoms that would seem to match his vital signs. Our team recognizes the mismatch and works quickly to get him to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, the team does what our host refers to as "the ultimate hospital intervention" and performs an open resuscitative thoracotomy. After multip...
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Transporting a newborn in distress already involves extreme logistical complexity, as you'll hear in this month's episode where our team is tasked with taking a newborn experiencing acute shortness of breath. But what happens when the mother starts to decompensate right alongside her baby? Now our team is tasked with caring for two patients, and how they tackle that complexity is the focus of this episode. How many peopl...
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At a motorcycle track, a middle-aged man suffers a massive crash off a jump. Byt the time our team arrives on scene, the man is inflating like a balloon suffering from massive structural-distorting subcutaneous emphysema. The massive air pockets completely obliterated his normal anatomy, leaving them to guess: Do we blindly plunge decompressing needles into his chest where the landmarks have completely vanished or do we ...
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A man in a high speed, rollover motor vehicle crash experiences a multitude of symptoms including hemorrhagic shock and profound respiratory distress. As our team assesses him, they attempt multiple needle decompressions to relieve pressure and improve breathing. None are successful. Having recently received training and approval to do a finger thoracostomy, they talk with their lead clinician and decide that is the best...
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On this episode of AMPED, when our team arrives on scene for a pediatric head trauma case in a 10-month old, everything at first seems normal and under control. But in that calm, something feels off to one of our clinicians and he believes our patient faces imminent peril. Does he defer to the doctor on scene who has given assurances that everything is fine, or does he listen to his intuition and communicate his concerns...
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When our crew is dispatched to an extremely rural location, they find our patient has fallen off an a-frame ladder and been impaled in the chest by a large piece of rebar on the ground. We know that in dealing with impalements, removal or jostling of the object can cause a host of problems for the patient, so the team must take great care in transporting him to a location where removal and treatment can occur in a safe a...
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Our crew was dispatched to a high energy, rollover MVC with a patient ejection, which usually demands aggressive trauma protocols. But what happens when the patient is equipped with a HeartMate II, a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) that pumps blood for failing hearts. The irony is that this extremely sophisticated medical device that keeps our patient alive, also precludes our team from gathering regular vital sign...
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On this show we have espoused the general guiding principal of "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." Sometimes the hoofbeats actually are those of zebras. But what if sometimes there not even zebras, they're unicorns? On this episode of AMPED, our patient has been bitten by a Jameson's Mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Thankfully, he is an expert herpetologist who is able to talk our team th...
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A brutal incident where a woman gets hit by a truck leaves her with a multitude of injuries, most notably both of her legs bent into a position best described as "frog legs." She's in good spirits and her vitals are good, but her legs bent at that angle means that she cannot fit into our team's helicopter. How does our team get her legs back into place without causing further trauma or risking her stable vitals? Complica...
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In an incredible twist of irony, this month's case focuses on our flight crew loading into their helicopter to be dispatched to... a patient who has fallen out of a helicopter. From a height of approximately 40 feet and at a speed of 30 knots, our patient has an abundance of injuries, which requires our team to remember their axiom: "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." This episode also introduces an important question:...
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A common aphorism in the medical community comes from Dr. Theodore Woodward who said in the 1940s, "When you hear hoofbeats behind you, think of horses, not zebras." It's a way of reminding medical practitioners that the most common explanation is usually correct. In other words, Occam's Razor is usually correct. But what happens when the most common explanation isn't correct? What happens when you turn around and find a...
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Extreme weather once again plays an important factor in this month's case where our team comes upon a car accident victim who has a litany of injuries that make care extremely challenging, even in optimal conditions. Featuring a pilot for the first time ever in AMPED history, we hear from our clinicians about how to give our patient the best shot at survival, and from our pilot about the many considerations he has to mak...
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A severely ill Flu A patient, fully intubated, and fighting for every breath requires the AMPED team for transport for possible ECMO. Under even the best of circumstances, this type of patient requires extensive care and presents many challenges. But what happens when extreme weather causes problems with the team's equipment, making care even more challenging? Find out how our team dealt with and overcame these challenge...
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A car accident on the highway sees the vehicle rollover nine times and ejects our patient out of the vehicle with a multitude of life threatening injuries. Our team refers to our patient as the sickest trauma patient any of them had ever seen. The outlook is very bleak, but our team perseveres and gives every effort to help increase the patient's odds of survival. While not ultimately successful, this episode provides cr...
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A motorcycle accident leaves our patient with a litany of serious injuries and severe bleeding, yet he remains alert and talking to the team... but that's not the only one he talks to. Our patient puts his life in the hands of a higher power and our Air Methods crew as they work to address his numerous injuries and ailments and get him to a hospital. Hear from the patient himself through this harrowing experience.
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As our team is out saving lives, we're excited to revisit one of the most harrowing episodes in our archives from January 2023. This remarkable story has a multitude of valuable lessons and insights you're going to love. See you next month with fresh content!

It's a different type of episode today on AMPED. We're joined by Ridley Barron, a Senior Pastor at Grove Hill Church in Chapel Hill, TN, and motivational speaker. He tell...
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Our team is dispatched to a scene where they understand a pregnant woman is experiencing footling breech during the birthing process. When they arrive, they find the baby already delivered and being tended to with Basic Life Support practices, although she is in rough shape. How does the team pivot? What steps do they take as the baby is in cardiac arrest? The answer, as it frequently is, is to go back to basics. Listen...
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When two flight teams are dispatched to a scene, usually the first to arrive takes the sicker of the patients. What happens when circumstances on the ground change that? How do the teams tag in and tag out with one another? On this episode of the AMPED Podcast, a high speed highway collision sees patients with a litany of maladies including traumatic brain injuries. Our team identifies and handles Beck's triad, ten...
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