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SIERRA VISTA — Medical professionals practiced lifesaving skills on pig throats Saturday as part of a special training course at Cochise College.
It was the first time the course was held in Arizona.
The Street Level Airway Management, or SLAM, course by the SLAM Airway Institute brought together 30 doctors, nurses, paramedics and emergency medical technicians from across Southern Arizona.
The class was hosted by the Cochise College Allied Health department to offer advanced training in airway management in a “pre-hospital” or “street” setting, said Mike Grill, assistant director of Allied Health.
  
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“Airway management is a skill that can’t be overemphasized,” Grill said.
Such specialized training isn’t usually offered in Southern Arizona, so it was a great opportunity, said Cathy Maddux, a flight nurse for AZ Lifeline Medical Transport in Douglas.
“It’s really boosted my confidence,” she said.
Neil Gago, a flight paramedic for AirEvac Medical Transport, attended “to make sure we provide above standard care.”
Making sure the patients are breathing is a “No. 1 priority,” Gago said.
“If you lose that, you’re pretty much behind the eight ball,” Maddux said.
After morning lectures on airway anatomy, airway exams, intubation and ventilation techniques and more, the students were ready to get their hands dirty at the “pig lab.”
There Gene Gandy, one of the course instructors, had pig throats, gloves and other medical equipment for a pig cricothyrotomy. Pig throats are used because they closely resemble the anatomy of the human throat.
The procedure involves cutting into the throat to provide air to the lungs and may be used in extreme trauma cases when other methods aren’t available.
Using their fingers, participants felt their own throat and their partner’s throat to locate the cricothyroid membrane on the throat. After identifying the same on the pigs throat, they made their cuts in the pig throats and tube insertions.
After the lab, participants headed to other workshops with mannequins to practice with a variety of tools and techniques, including ways to perform a tracheal intubation, which is when a tube is inserted down the patient’s throat.
Sometimes tubes are inserted through the nostrils, rather than the mouth.
“It’s gonna wind up in the same place,” Grill said.
Other times paralytic drugs are used to temporarily paralyzed patients to allow them to get the tube to where it needs to be. This technique is more dangerous because of the use of paralytic drugs, but can be necessary to save their life, Grill said.
Because as the course taught, “if your patient can’t breathe, nothing else matters,” Grill said.
REPORTER Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683 or by e-mail at laura.ory@svherald.com.
ON THE NET
• Street Level Airway Management:www.slamairway.com.
