About Fred Wu, MHS, PA-C

Lead PA
Department of Emergency Medicine
Kaweah Delta Medical Center (Visalia, CA)

Trick of the Trade: Knee Arthrocentesis

arthrocentesis2A patient comes into the ED and you suspect septic arthritis to the knee. As you consent the patient for arthrocentesis, you can tell s/he has reservations about a needle being inserted into their knee and left in place while you aspirate. You also think in the back of your mind how tricky it is to sometimes change syringes while keeping the needle in the correct location. Is there another way of tapping the knee without a needle?

 

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Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) course

Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) is a new online course that I am taking. It is sponsored by the NeuroCritical Care Society, which focuses on the first few hours of care to neurological emergencies. It is a collaborative effort between emergency physicians and neurointensivists, both of which author each individual module. The course is co-chaired by Scott Weingart, MD of EMCrit fame and is geared towards anyone who treats neurological emergencies (physicians, nurses, PA/NP, EMS personnel). The course utilizes technology to deliver its content by podcast, video presentation of ENLS guidelines, online reading of published guidelines and an online quiz. Completion of all modules awards the participant a certificate of certification in ENLS as well as 15 hours of CME. (more…)

By |2017-03-05T14:18:34-08:00Jul 15, 2013|Neurology, Social Media & Tech|

Best place to suffer a cardiac arrest?

Where’s the best place to suffer cardiac arrest? Seattle? Las Vegas? Who’s going to give me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Will someone know how to use an automatic external defibrillator (AED)?

Where is the BEST place to experience a cardiac arrest???


As luck would have it, the best place would be at the ACEP Scientific Assembly. On the first day of Scientific Assembly, an exhibitor collapsed in the convention center without a pulse. At a conference with thousands of emergency physicians, several Good Samaritans immediately sprung into action. An attendee used a CPR mask while another operated an AED. They were able to revive their patient, where he is reportedly doing well at a local hospital.

Congratulations to Drs. David Pigott, Jared Shell, Jerry Edwards and everyone else involved on a job well done! 

By |2019-02-19T18:05:51-08:00Oct 17, 2012|Cardiovascular|

Advice for the new EM interns, part II

Pediatrics-ED
As a followup to a previous post on “The 10 Commandments in Emergency Medicine”, we would like to pay tribute to our pediatric friends. More than a decade after it was initially published, Timothy Givens (also from Vanderbilt but the pediatric side) published “The 10 commandments of pediatric Emergency Medicine”. Although the original commandments still hold true, the pediatric commandments augment them nicely and are geared towards our littler patients.

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By |2016-11-11T19:59:20-08:00Aug 8, 2011|Medical Education|
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