"this should only be done by professionals"

Me, with what I thought was a red sharpie in my trauma kit: 👁️👄👁️

Cool, I'm ready to start sticking people should the need arise.  First person with so much as light asthma is getting the business.

Rule #1: Do Not stab the meaty-beaty with your icky-sticky

“If you stab the heart, obviously there’s gonna be some problems there.”

"If you accidentally stab the patients heart that's gonna be a problem"

Me, taking notes

Combat tip from a medic during desperate circumstances:

When doing a Needle Decompression during either combat or lots of noise, it sounds gross to do but lick a portion of your skin above your glove line and then put it over the decompression needle which should allow you to feel air coming out of the needle in any circumstances due to the "cold feeling" of the air hitting your wet skin. No cold feeling means no air coming out.

It works.

As a non-medic that does carry a trauma kit and responds to medical calls, I thank you for making this video to demonstrate all the reasons I should not under almost any circumstances attempt this procedure!

Needles, and especially extra long ones, are never pleasant. But I can promise you this: if your life is really in jeopardy, a long needle will be the least of your concerns.

I'm thinking of tatooing 'x's on my chest to pinpoint where the needle should go.  That way I could do this to myself if I ever need to.

I cant find my third rib to save my life

W A R N I N G: This video may cause..... Manual breathing.

Is anybody else trying to count their ribs while watching this?

As a collapsed lung survivor back in high school and looking into becoming an emt I can say that a spontaneous pneumothorax sucks extremely. Getting the air sucked out of you and not knowing what's wrong is terrifying. Stay safe man.

My chest started hurting when he pushed that needle in. Ive gone too deep down the Youtube rabbit hole lol

It bugs me that these tactical websites include these but not a tourniquet in a trauma kit.

The advantage of going into the 5th intercostal space is it takes you out of the cardiac box. We were taught it during my TCCC course.

Good to know that about the no-longer-needed one-way valve.

Fun fact: instead of using the finger of a glove, I was taught to push the needle through the tip of a lubricated condom. The cut-finger of a glove never sealed anything when I used it. The lubricant helped keep the inside of the condom stuck together and, when unrolled, made an effective one-way valve.
And that’s why this faithfully married paramedic kept condoms in his pocket on the band-aid bus.

I had a  life-changing experience at the emergency medicine cadaver labs. Everything in your video is spot on as far as how it is taught to the masses. However, there are a few major problems with how these skills are taught that haven't hit the masses yet.

- You will never see tracheal deviation as a late or early sign. The books all have that listed because it is visible on an XRAY. It's not a late sign, it's just a sign only seen by radiologists when they get scanned at the hospital. Somehow the idea of it being a late sign occurred, probably out of a misconception.The flexible part of the trachea is not visible to the human eye.

-Just to clarify, you are right that the needles are generally too short. But it's not because the needle catheter can't ' get into the thorax' . It's PLENTY long to get inside the thorax. In fact, people frequently biopsy the heart and liver when they insert the needle in. It just isn't long enough to feed the catheter to the superior thorax, (angled towards the collarbone). Most patients only need about 2cm past the ribs to get inside the thorax.

-Which leads me to point # 2. EMS academies and schools everywhere are teaching your exact method. Burying the needle all the way in. This is terrible! you can easily stab the heart with less than 2 inches from the midclavicular line. We watched this occur on several of the cadavers. We even stuck our finger in... It' more close than you think.

-The correct way to insert the catheter is to grip the needle with two hands. Intentionally find the middle of the rib with the tip of the needle. This depth is highly variable because many people have a ton of adipose tissue.  Manually push the needle above/below the rib and proceed 2 cm. Immediately angle the needle towards the collarbone and feed the catheter upwards. You do not want to go much further than 2cm, as there is no reason to do this.

As a Marine that had this done to him I've always wanted to know more.
Thank God for Corpsmen.

We had to do this in our cls (combat life saver) class in the guard and it was pretty neat to learn.  Everyone new to the military is getting cls certified and I believe it's a wonderful skill to have.  Thanks for the post man!