Episode 43- Matt Wilkes and Emergency Medicine, Hypoxia, and Extreme Physiology for Pilots

This is probably the most critical podcast episode we’ve made available to date. As human flight junkies we participate in activities that let’s face it- are dangerous. In this episode we sit down with Matt Wilkes, an anaesthesia and intensive care doctor based in Edinburgh, Scotland who specializes in extreme physiology and remote medicine to walk us through best practices when things go wrong. Matt has practiced in Nepal, Bolivia and New Zealand and honed his remote trauma skills as a Flight Physician for the East African Flying Doctors, picking up casualties from countries including Somalia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Matt takes us through what we need to be carrying in our first aid kit; how to operate in a wilderness environment; how to assess a casualty and make a scene safe; how to care for a victim including the use of narcotics and pain killers; how having a lack of equipment and difficult access to medicine can be overcome; the affects of cold and altitude on pilots (hypoxia); how an accident scene should be managed; best practices for trauma management (including splinting, binding the pelvis, opening an airway, the lethal triad and keeping people warm, pain relief, head injuries, tourniquets, removing a helmet…); controversies about spinal immobilization and a lot more. This podcast is CRITICAL. Make notes and PLEASE- share this with your fellow pilots! There are links to everything we discuss in the show notes below. Matt has been a Lead Doctor or Medical Advisor for multiple expeditions, including leading a team on the largest group ever to camp on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Matt is the Director of Adventure Medic magazine, holds a Master’s Degree in Mountain Medicine, is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine and is currently undertaking a PhD studying the interaction of altitude, cold and cognition on paraglider pilots. PLEASE support Matt’s critical work on extreme physiology and high altitude affects through the http://www.freeflightphysiology.org/ Read a teaser of Matt’s article on high altitude physiology in Cross Country Magazine.   A buck an episode, that’s all we ask. Subscribe to the Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast on Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Tune In, or ITunes!       Show Notes: Matt’s contact details: [email protected], and The Adventure Medic  * Skills Applying a pelvic binder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYcT0hX0tzo Openning an airway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=era6QWknpVs Removing a full face helmet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeQEY59ql3g Splinting: