Pat Lilja, medical director for North Memorial’s emergency medical services.

“It’s like putting a sheet metal screw in a wall,” said Dr. When done properly, EMS officials said the drill creates a secure connection that doesn’t get jostled when patients are moved and transported to hospitals. Some medics during his study were pushing on the drill too hard, or pulling on it and preventing the needle and port from locking into the bone. There is a learning curve, however, Frascone said. Research studies have shown that medics in the field can use it and have drugs flowing into patients within 60 seconds. The medics were more precise with the EZ-IO, using it correctly in 86 percent of attempts, according to results published this summer.įrascone recently demonstrated on an uncooked chicken leg, drilling into the bone and then leaving behind the inserted needle and port. Paul wasn’t involved in the development or initial federal trials that permitted the device’s use, but its medics did a small research study using the EZ-IO and a competing drill called the FAST-1. “This device can be the difference between life and death,” Frascone said. Medical units in Iraq and Afghanistan are using it more frequently in trauma situations as well. VidaCare, the Texas manufacturer, now counts 1,800 EMS units in the U.S. It’s typically used on patients in cardiac arrest or shock, and only then after medics are unable to manually thread needles into the veins in their hands or arms.įrascone said the drill is gradually becoming a first choice because it’s easy and fast. Regions EMS has been involved in early use and research of the so-called EZ-IO, which drills a needle through a soft spot below the knee and creates a port through which medics can inject and withdraw fluids.

Frascone, medical director of emergency medical services for Regions Hospital in St. “It’s important that people understand this, before a medic takes out this Black and Decker-looking thing and they wonder, ‘What in the hell are you doing?’ ” said Dr. It’s unfamiliar to patients and bystanders, though, so one emergency medical services official is hoping to spread the word about it.

The handheld device makes injecting fluids and drugs quicker during many high-stress emergencies. A new battery-powered drill is helping paramedics save lives, but it also might be scaring patients.

Floyds ez way