Flail! How to not....

This wicked-looking device is a flail. I don't think I need to say that it is a weapon of great destructive power.

It is the origin of the term, "to flail", which means, "to beat or thrash about, as with a flail". The implications is that "flailing" causes a lot of damage.

I have seen medical situations that lived up to the term "flail". Generally this occurs when too many people, or too many INEXPERIENCED people, are involved in a medical emergency or situation that suddenly goes "wrong". In such situations the great advice given in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind, "Don't panic!"

It took me a long time as a physician to resist the urge to panic when confronted with a medical emergency. One of the principles that helped was my "OXYGEN, GLUCOSE" mantra--it doesn't matter what you do to the patient if they are not being oxygenated and are not getting any usable energy. The procedurally perfect "code" is useless if the person's heart never starts beating.

I had a professor in med school say that, "...everyone should be allowed to die in perfect metabolic balance." The problem with this maxim, though, is obvious. 

A few key principles can mean the difference between saving a life, which is often simpler than it seems, and failing. DON'T PANIC, OXYGEN, and GLUCOSE are mine.