In the preparation for the 19th World Congress on Disaster & Emergency Medicine held in Cape Town – AfJEM asked African Emergency Medicine lovers something interesting –
“Can you hack, concoct, devise or contrive a wanted resource using only locally available materials? You can..? Really..? Now you can show it off & win some amazing prizes”
The rules of engagement we were given were:
- You can only use materials that are locally available
- Your end-product should have comparable functionality to the product it aims to replace
- It should be simple to hack, concoct, devise or contrive
- It should be novel (not have been described before)
#badEM authors & friends quickly went hard at work to submit our “tricks of the trade” & were excited to hear about the entries at the conference. After numerous entries Dr Stevan Bruijns & the AfJEM team voted for a Top 5; described below.
4th Place – Jamie Higgins @jr_higgins
Homemade Needle Thoracentesis vest, made from old wetsuit and bladders of two old manual blood pressure cuffs.
The vest is designed to be either: worn by a classmate, applied to a CPR doll or the wetsuit can be stuffed with newspaper. It is used for students to practice the above skill in a learning environment where expensive simulation training dolls are not available.
The vest is designed with the back slit open, for easy application. The anterior left and right chest wall have pockets stitched on the inside to allow for placement of BP cuff bladders. A hard piece of plastic with horizontal cut outs simulating intercostal spaces is inserted overlying the bladder. A complete piece of plastic is inserted behind the bladder to protect the wearer. On the outside of the vest, additional pieces of wetsuit material are applied with velcro allowing for replacement when they become worn through.
