OLATHE, Kan. — A new partnership between Johnson County Med-Act and the Johnson County Library could help save lives and potentially save the county thousands of dollars on medical supplies.
Starting in 2023, Johnson County Med-Act will add surgical cricothyrotomy as a treatment intervention option for patients who can’t breathe due to a blockage in their airwaves or severe trauma.
Cricothyrotomy is the process of making an incision in a patient’s neck to insert a tube into the trachea to establish an airway.
Adiel Garcia, Division Chief of Education and Integrated Healthcare at Med-Act, said while the need for that level of medical care may be rare, paramedics have to train to handle any type of emergency scenario.
“We have to come up with as many different situations as possible that we might find ourselves in, so that we can cover all of those…