Today is Crozer annual cadaver lab. This year it is in a brand spanking new building of the new Drexel Medical school, which recently moved from Queen Lane campus to Drexel Main Campus. It’s located in Powelton Village right in the heart of West Philly. Despite parking situation being a total horror, the new Drexel Med building is beautiful and spacious.

Annual cadaver lab is very important for everyone who is/will be doing invasive procedures in their careers. Emergency Medicine is obviously THE one where physicians need to be knowledgeable and skillful in performing life-saving procedures. That is why it is mandatory that we all get trained on cadavers first, so in real life we are able to save our patients’ lives without blinking an eye.

Our brand new interns and medical students got to learn how to do various emergency procedures, such as chest tubes, crics, thoracotomies, etc. Our more senior residents, Pets EM fellows and EM attendings got to renew/validate/sharpen their already existing skills, as some procedures are rare and we all need to be on standby, prepared and ready to go any time.

The first 2 hours were spent in a classroom reviewing indications and contraindications for each procedure, watching videos on how to perform the procedure properly. Our PD Dr. Mark Saks traditionally led this portion of the lab. There are some awesome educational videos he showed us.

Then we moved on to a practical part of our lab, actually doing procedures until everyone is comfortable performing them.

Here our chair Dr. Richard Hamilton is going over thoracotomy. We all need to know what instruments are in the thoracotomy tray, how to load and use a rib spreader, etc. Seniors are attentively listening as they will be the ones responsible for it in real life!

Our PD Dr. Mark Saks is going over lateral canthotomy

Our APD Dr. Max Cooper is responsible for teaching pericardiocenthesis. Angela is the bravest to go for it first!

The Crozer Airway guru Dr. Steve Carroll is teaching… oh, well… cricothyroidotomy. Who else can do it better?

Our stellar senior Greg Robinson is the first one to make a cut for the thoracotomy

At the end, when the tensions drop and all docs feel satisfied with themselves and their skills, it’s time for a group shot. Well, now it’s time to be a little silly!

Go, Crozer EM!!!

Here is a link to an educational video of an emergency cric from YouTube, that many of us would find helpful: