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 make in order to expedite his arrival at a care facility. Hear these unique ins...
Aug 20, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 55
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 challenges to help ensure our patient's recovery and survival. Interested in obtainin...
Jul 23, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 54
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 critical insight and valuable lessons learned from our team about how importan...
Jun 18, 2025•33 min•Season 1Ep. 53
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. Interested in obtaining CE credit for this episode? Visit OnlineAscend.com to lear...
May 22, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 52
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 tells an incredible story about how his life was changed in a split second...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 51
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 in on this incredible story with an unexpected ending. Interested in obtaini...
Mar 19, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 50
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, tension pnuemothorax, flail chest and a lot more in an eventful transport to the medi...
Feb 21, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 49
A pinkie promise is a promise you cannot break, and it's one our patient in this month's episode made to his wife when he was stricken with a life-threatening COVID infection. She made him promise that he would pull through the ordeal, and he did... but not without many bumps in the road. Our team not only battled our patient's COVID, but also a nasty case of pneumonia that ultimately led to him needing to be placed on ECMO, which, as you know, is usually a last resort. Listen in as they transpo...
Jan 29, 2025•42 min•Season 1Ep. 48
The holidays are a time for hope, a time for believing in the extraordinary. Remember that classic holiday film, Miracle on 34th Street ? Just when everyone's lost faith, a series of unexpected events bring about the impossible. Well, this week on the Air Methods Prehospital Education Podcast, we bring you a real-life story that echoes that same spirit. It's a case of resilience, determination, and the power of preparation in the face of a life-threatening pediatric emergency. Picture this: a ch...
Dec 19, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 47
A gruesome head-on motorcycle accident causes this month's patient a litany of injuries. He has bilateral femur fractures, a large open wound on his abdomen and much more... and he's awake the whole time. He is cognizant, lucid, and chatting with our team through the entire ordeal. Is he experiencing neurogenic shock? And if he is experiencing neurogenic shock, can he be electrically paced? There's no standard guidance on this exact scenario. Tune into this episode of AMPED to find out what our ...
Nov 20, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 46
A seemingly simple heart attack gives our team pause because the patient presents a litany of conflicting symptoms. Should our team send him to have a stent put in right away - as is standard procedure - or do they wait to address the other symptoms and risk muscle damage? What would you do if you were in their position? Our hosts consider the symptoms and give their own recommendations while our team shares what actually unfolded. The lesson is that if something feels a bit off, it's important ...
Oct 16, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 45
A motorcycle accident victim faces dire circumstances and our team has to execute a new procedure that is rarely done in the field and has a high degree of risk if not done correctly. They are one of the only teams in the region equipped to even do such a procedure, and our team is concerned about doing it correctly because a lot can go wrong. Could you do a procedure you don't normally do with an audience? Because in addition to having to execute for the good of the patient, our team had the pa...
Sep 18, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Presented with a patient whose symptoms seem contradictory then flip, change and remain unclear, our team must continue to work to keep the patient alive. What's causing the duress for our patient? Is it an aneurysm? Is it neoplastic process? Cardiac arrest? Some combination of these factors? Our team remains nimble, attentive, and diligent in their work. What lessons can we learn from this case? Tune in and find out. Interested in obtaining CE credit for this episode? Visit OnlineAscend.com to ...
Aug 21, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Summer season has our clinicians busy and therefore we are re-sharing Episode 35 featuring the harrowing journey of a brave 10 year-old boy. See you next month with fresh content! As first responders, the odds of patient survival are not always in our favor. But that does not stop us from working quickly to provide the highest level of care for the chances of defying those odds. In this episode, a 10 year-old boy wrecks on his bicycle, a fairly common occurrence and one that rarely requires air ...
Jul 19, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Sometimes the hardest part is the waiting. When our team is dispatched to a scene where a man who does not speak English is trapped inside a confined space with possible crush injuries, hypothermia and hyperkalemia, they must wait for him to be extricated. How do you stand that interminable time? How do you stay ready? And then how do you switch from inaction to action once it's time? Our team tackles yet another unique case in this month's episode. Interested in obtaining CE credit for this epi...
Jun 19, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 41
When our team is dispatched in the middle of the night to a hospital that almost never calls them requesting air transport for a case of an obstructed airway that doesn't, at first blush, seem like it warrants it, our team approaches with caution and curiosity. When they arrive, something doesn't add up and they first opt to phone the on-call doctor to explain the situation, and then dig deep into their bag of tricks - a la famous, resourceful TV character MacGyver - to improvise a unique soluti...
May 15, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Any pediatric case comes with a higher degree of tension due to a variety of factors including compensatory responses to distress leading to a precarious "cliff" when those compensatory efforts cease. When our team is dispatched to a 5 year-old child struggling to breathe, yet still shows strong vital signs, how will the AMPED team respond? This episode discusses at great length understanding that even though we should strive for perfection in every action we take, sometimes "good" is good enoug...
Apr 17, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 39
By necessity, our teams are dispatched to most extreme, most rare, most complex, and sometimes most hopeless-seeming cases any patient could ever experience. It would be easy to look at certain cases - like say, a man whose legs are stuck in a concrete augur on a precarious platform with injuries that are intermingled and devastating - and assess that he's not going to make it. Our Air Methods team uses creativity, determination, skill and compassion to exhaust every possible method to help our ...
Mar 27, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 38
When an infant patient faces seemingly insurmountable odds over the course of several hours, one of our clinicians suffers a mental health breakdown over the ensuing shifts, days and weeks. Thankfully her team recognized changes in her behavior and mood and offered abundant help. This episode covers not only the case involving the infant patient, but the aftermath and care for our clinicians. If you, or someone you work with, is struggling with your mental health, please reach out to Shatterproo...
Feb 21, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Our profession requires extensive and exhaustive training. Much of it can seem esoteric and possibly unnecessary at the time, but we train on all of these things for a reason. When our team comes upon a severely burned patient, they extent of the burns causes a melange of difficulties. Could an obscure, and rarely used, procedure ultimately help and provide the patient more time? The AMPED team discusses this little-used technique and we discuss the importance of remaining familiar with the abun...
Jan 24, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 36
As first responders, the odds of patient survival are not always in our favor. But that does not stop us from working quickly to provide the highest level of care for the chances of defying those odds. In this episode, a 10 year-old boy wrecks on his bicycle, a fairly common occurrence and one that rarely requires air transport, yet when our team arrives on scene, his vitals crash in front of their very eyes. What's going on? And what actions do they take to save his life? An inspirational, harr...
Dec 20, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Things are not as they seem on this month's episode of AMPED. Our team arrives on scene to find first responders dealing with a chemical burn and administering CPR. But something is amiss. This episode is a stark reminder that no matter the time of day, no matter the other circumstances, our role as clinicians is to stay vigilant in our analysis and always to assess every aspect of the situation thoroughly. Interested in obtaining CE credit for this episode? Visit OnlineAscend.com to learn more....
Nov 15, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 34
In a Florida nature park, a woman is bitten by a snake, which is not terribly uncommon in this part of the country. What is unusual is her reaction to it, which is severely anaphylactic. With limited resources in the sprawling park, a closing window for treatment, and critical decisions to be made instantly, how will the team assess, handle and treat our patient in this week's episode? And why such a severe reaction? Find out when you tune in. Interested in obtaining CE credit for this episode? ...
Oct 18, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Our teams at Air Methods have many checklists they follow to ensure optimal care for each patient. What happens when our teams have to pivot their approach and their treatments because of the uniqueness of each individual? On this episode, our team tends to a car crash victim whose injuries make traditional methods of care impossible, and the team is forced to pivot multiple times to provide treatment. This episode also tackles the question of when it's appropriate to give the patient's family t...
Sep 20, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Hot on the heels of Ep. 31, which featured the Air Methods team taking care of one of their own, we return with bonus content. It's rare that we get to talk to the patient of one of our cases, and even rarer that the patient is also one of our clinicians. In this bonus interview, we share more of our conversation with Jeff Chesleigh as he divulges what it was like to code multiple times, his thought process during the ordeal, how his approach to patients going through a similar experience has ch...
Sep 01, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Our Air Methods crew always pride themselves on providing the highest level of care to each and every patient they encounter. But what happens when the patient is one of their own? What happens when he codes multiple times from a myocardial infarction? Further compounding the issue is that many of the resources used to treat MI are unavailable in this rural area. Interested in obtaining CE credit for this episode? Visit OnlineAscend.com to learn more. Listeners can purchase individual episode cr...
Aug 16, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Click HERE for CE credits! Building on the conclusion of Episode 29, the AMPED team sticks with the patients and works to figure out why our patient has not delivered her placenta, why she's bleeding, and how to ensure both she and her baby thrive in the crucial time after childbirth. If you're unfamiliar with postpartum care, ask yourself these questions: What do you need to brush up on? What should you review? And what should be ready for when this situation arises? The AMPED team is joined by...
Jul 19, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 30
How up to date are you, as a first responder, on all things neonatal? Are you prepared to take care of and assess a newborn in the very first minutes of their lives? What tools should you have at the ready? How do you improvise the solutions you need? And what key things should you be looking for? This episode of AMPED examines a recent case where our team had to do just that. The AMPED team is joined by: Matthew Milligan, Flight Nurse CCRN Joseph Finney MD Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician...
Jun 21, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Sometimes during a medical event, a team can make all the correct choices and still lose a patient. In this episode, a patient experiencing angioedema presents our team with choices that are all undeniably fraught and filled with risk. As they relive the event, they discuss how they cope when things don't work out as they hoped, how they try to use the experience for future cases, and the importance of the support and communication of your colleagues. The AMPED team is joined by: Joan Noelker, M...
May 17, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 28
This episode is about the challenges of transporting a highly complex patient with multiple medications and life-saving technologies. In this episode, Critical care paramedic Jordan Stone encountered a malfunctioning transvenous pacemaker causing the patient to move putting at risk his multiple connections and balloon pump placement. With the help of his medical director Dr. Weir, hear how our team dealt with this tenuous situation. The AMPED team is joined by: Jordan Stone NRP, FP-C, CCP-C, Cli...
Apr 19, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 27
