Author Russ ruszczyk

About Russ ruszczyk

Russ Ruszczyk was an Army-trained X-ray technician with orders to Vietnam in 1968 but was re-routed to a unit assigned to the 101st Airborne at LZ Betty, where he became a medic. After his tour and certification as a radiologic technologist, he worked in several hospitals. In 1981, he completed the paramedic program in Nebraska and has remained a registered paramedic ever since. In addition, to being a certified procurement transplant coordinator for five years he also worked as a volunteer firefighter/paramedic for 20 years while working a paid job in other professions. He started his EMS career as a medic in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. Then he became a registered radiology tech working mostly the adult cardiac cath lab with five years at a children’s hospital. In 1982 he became a registered paramedic, was a volunteer firefighter/paramedic for 20 years and taught for several university and college-based EMS programs. Then he became a certified procurement transplant coordinator and maintained brain dead organ donors in ICU for five years and worked aboard the casino riverboat, the Kannesville Queen.

AAJT-Abdominal Aortic and Junctional Tourniquet

Recent wartime experience has demonstrated that tourniquets can save lives. Yet many common military and civilian injuries, particularly armpit and groin injuries and pelvic fractures, remain difficult to treat in the field. Patients with these injuries are at high risk for bleeding to death. Since 2012, special operations forces worldwide have been using an advanced tourniquet [...]

Pediatric Stroke

Stroke is one of the top 10 causes of death in children in the U.S.  Signs of stroke are often missed in children and teens because of a lack of awareness, we think of geriatric, not pediatric stroke. AIS (arterial ischemic stroke) accounts for about half of all strokes in children, in contrast to adults in [...]

Opioid antagonist nalmefene 

  1961, Dr. Jack Fishman and Dr. Mozes Lewenstein applied for one of the first patents for naloxone. 1971, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved using naloxone to treat overdoses. 1995, the FDA has granted OxyContin drugmaker Purdue Pharma, fast track designation for opioid overdose antidote Revex nalmefene hydrochloride (HCl) injection. However, the besieged firm [...]

Stroke Assessment and you!

Updating the stroke assessment   Direct percutaneous puncture of the cervical carotid artery remained the primary technique unto the 1960s to visualize intracranial blood vessels until Seldinger’s technique was introduced in 1953. This was a diagnostic procedure after the stroke or TIA (Varon, Varon, & Nyman, 2007) I was employed as a Radiologic Technologist (X-ray tech) in [...]

Are you pulling my leg????

Are you pulling my leg? -femur fractures The Thomas splint was first introduced by Hugh Owen Thomas in 1875, in his book titled, Diseases of the hip, knee and ankle joints with their deformities, treated by a new and efficient method.   Across the western front, the splint was adopted and by 1917, it had become standard issue [...]

No, I never had heart surgery, but…

  No longer will you ask your patient what kind of heart surgery they had upon seeing that sternotomy scar from an incision made before they saw through the length of your sternum and then reconnect it with wires after they’re done.  If you haven’t already, you will have the patient that denies any heart problems [...]

The curious case of Phineas P. Gage

The life you save may not be the patient you’re treating.   A head trauma patient may not be as lucky as Phineas P Gage.  If you’re not familiar with his story, briefly he had a pointed iron rod 1 ¼ inches in diameter and 3 feet 7 inches log enter under his left eye and [...]