Episodes
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Checking the Organ Donor Box - Worst Decision of My Death?
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
The reality of organ donation isn't quite crystal clear and it's something you might want to lend a little more thought to. Dr. Perrodin shares that he opted to become an organ donor and the unanticipated frosty reaction from his friends. David shares what he learned from his research about organ donation – the pros, cons and simply the unknown. Did what he learned compel him to brave a return to the DMV line to amend his license? ALSO IN THIS EPISODE. New Requirements To Renew A Driver’s License | 70 Mile Bike Trek | One Day Dubuque Vacation | & Bollards Are BS As A Means of School Safety. THE DARK SIDE OF BEING AN ORGAN DONOR (by Jamie Condliffe – Gizmodo, 03-12-2012) “Becoming an organ donor is widely considered a good thing. If you die and offer up your body to medicine, you can extend the life of others with zero inconvenience—after all, you're dead. But it turns out that the reality of organ donation isn't quite so crystal clear, and that it's something you might want to lend a little more thought to. Becoming an organ donor is easy; just tick a box on your driving license, or fill in a simple form. You may not know that you waive your rights to informed consent at that stage: doctors don't have to tell your relatives where your organs go, or what they do to your body to extract them. You have few legal rights; you're dead, remember. That's not too bad, though. I can live with that. But writing for the Wall Street Journal, Dick Teresi raises a more interesting point: the majority of organ donors are victims of head trauma, who end up being ruled dead based on brain-death criteria. And brain-death diagnosis isn't really an exact science: The exam for brain death is simple. A doctor splashes ice water in your ears (to look for shivering in the eyes), pokes your eyes with a cotton swab and checks for any gag reflex, among other rudimentary tests. It takes less time than a standard eye exam. Finally, in what's called the apnea test, the ventilator is disconnected to see if you can breathe unassisted. If not, you are brain dead. (Some or all of the above tests are repeated hours later for confirmation.) Here's the weird part. If you fail the apnea test, your respirator is reconnected. You will begin to breathe again, your heart pumping blood, keeping the organs fresh. Doctors like to say that, at this point, the "person" has departed the body. You will now be called a BHC, or beating-heart cadaver. The problem is, plenty of BHCs still have brain waves. A bigger problem is that—very, very occasionally— BHC's even start breathing again by themselves. Whether they're actually dead or not, well, that's up for debate. It's that uncertainty that many people are, quite rightly, starting to worry about. For a deeper insight, you should read Teresi's article; it's really quite thought-provoking. In the meantime, I'm remaining a donor but hoping for a lack of imminent head trauma." CONCLUSION. The Safety Doc remains stout in his decision to be an organ donor. People on organ waiting lists perish each day. It might not be a perfect system - and with advances in technology and 3D printing of cellular structures organ donation might become obsolete by the time I leave this world, but if it was my child in need of a heart - yeah, the donor would be in my debt. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com David will respond to comments & emails. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. The show adheres to nondiscrimination principles while seeking to bring forward productive discourse & debate on topics relevant to personal or institutional safety. Email David: thesafetydoc@gmail.com LOOKING FOR DR. TIMOTHY LUDWIG, PHD? Dr. Perrodin’s “Safety Doc Podcast” negotiates school and community safety. To be informed about industrial safety, please contact Appalachian State University Professor Dr. Timothy Ludwig, PhD, at www.safety-doc.com.
Monday Jul 09, 2018
In Harm’s Way - My Ire With Intentional Bad Decision Makers
Monday Jul 09, 2018
Monday Jul 09, 2018
The Thailand cave rescue isn’t sitting well with Dr. Perrodin. And yeah, he’s also incensed by other recent events that involved people making intentional bad decisions despite overt warnings. The “Doc” is hot under the collar in this episode – and wants you to recognize the risk associated with your decisions and look beyond to grasp the ramifications to others. Rescuers have been placed harm’s way and few considerations are given to the ripple impact when crisis resources are allocated and consumed by fully preventable incidents. The media refuses to call out informed people that forego warnings and choose to make stupid safety decisions. Dr. Perrodin strongly argues that there must be consequences for those that carelessly place others in harm’s way.IN THIS EPISODE: Cemeteries Make Even Less Sense to David | Biking Trifecta | Family Garage Cleaning Day | 3 Current Examples of Informed People Making Decisions that Put Others in Harm’s Way and how the Media Has Done A Dis-service By Spinning These into “Feel Good” Stories. THAI CAVE RESCUE. Why did the coach and boys enter the cave? It was a rite of passage. The players intended to carve their names on a wall and seemingly become part of the brotherhood of soccer athletes. Rituals are good - I would argue essential for young men, but this was just a stupid decision. Yeah, this was a complex cave to navigate in ideal conditions, but there’s value in rituals. However, ignoring a warning sign at the mouth of the cave and apparently not having a weather app make the coach fully culpable for leading the team to the brink of extinction. Per a media account, “A large warning sign at the cave's entrance raises the risk of entering so close to the monsoon season, they say, and he should have known better. But for many in Thailand, Ekapol, who left his life in the monkhood three years ago and joined the Wild Boars as an assistant coach soon after, is an almost divine force, sent to protect the boys as they go through this ordeal. A widely shared cartoon drawing of Ekapol shows him sitting cross-legged, as a monk does in meditation, with 12 little wild boars in his arms.” And now that all have been rescued the coach is celebrated as a hero. STATUE OF LIBERTY PROTEST. On July 5th, 16 officers with the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit coordinated a logistical twister of removing a lady who had scaled the lower portion of the Statue of Liberty because she felt compelled to protest “kids in Texas” by making a choice to break the law and place the parents of other kids in harm’s way. You have the right to protest. You do not have the right to choose to disobey rules and create a situation that puts others at risk for harm. RED NO SWIMMING FLAGS. The final mental fumble described by Dr. Perrodin was the July 7th drowning of a 62-year-old man swimming in rough surf in Kill Devil Hills despite explicit posting of “no swimming” flags. This man’s decision cost him his life, likely shattered the lives of those that cared about him, and brought risk to countless persons involved in his rescue and recovery. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com David will respond to comments & emails. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. The show adheres to nondiscrimination principles while seeking to bring forward productive discourse & debate on topics relevant to personal or institutional safety. Email David: thesafetydoc@gmail.com LOOKING FOR DR. TIMOTHY LUDWIG, PHD? Dr. Perrodin’s “Safety Doc Podcast” negotiates school and community safety. To be informed about industrial safety, please contact Appalachian State University Professor Dr. Timothy Ludwig, PhD, at www.safety-doc.com.
Saturday Jun 30, 2018
How A Tackle Decided the Fate of School Safety
Saturday Jun 30, 2018
Saturday Jun 30, 2018
On May 25, 2018, Indiana middle school teacher Jason Seaman tackled a student who had asked to be excused from class at Noblesville Middle School West, then returned with two handguns and opened fire. Seaman, who was wounded by gunfire and per accounts appears to be on his way to a “full” recovery and was released from the hospital shortly after the shooting. HERO. Jason Seaman is a hero. He arguably meets three of the four criteria set forth in the Merriam-Webster dictionary of: (1) an illustrious warrior; (2) a person admired for achievements and noble qualities; and (3) one who shows great courage. He put his life before those of his students and exercised discretion to engage the shooter as he deemed that he had an opportunity to either interrupt or terminate this situation. In this instance, his decision ended a potential rampage. RUN-HIDE-FIGHT. While Mr. Seaman’s actions appear justified and validated by the outcome, they do, never-the-less, go against the frequently-recited school safety directive of “Run-Hide-Fight.” There are now two approaches to school safety in the United States. The first, and the one fueled by emotion over empiricism, is to fortify or fight the intruder. The second camp focuses on improving threat detection and threat reporting and lockdown drills that center getting behind a locked a door or concealing into the environment. Most school shootings conclude by 8-minutes after onset. It is also uncommon for the school shooter to blast his way into a locked interior room – instead opting to find an unlocked door or individuals in an open area. 10 YEARS AGO. A decade ago, few schools would have practiced or openly endorsed an unarmed adult confronting an armed gunman. The protocol was for the adult to bring students into a secured area and wait for the police to enter the building and neutralize or the shooter (or the shooter to take his own life). We also tend to operate too much on the sole shooter scenario – just saying. So, Jason Seaman tackles a school shooter and the argument for “arming teachers” and “swarming an intruder” receive a boost of “this is the right approach” and although it “worked” in this specific situation, is this an approach that will become the expectation for educators? APOTHEOSIS – POP CULTURE IS ALL ABOUT THE HERO. I want to preface this by stating I am not throwing shade onto Mr. Seaman. My oldest daughter is in middle school and I would be indebted to someone that intervened to try to save her life. Of no doing of his own, Jason Seaman has been raised to the level of a deity (AKA, apotheosis). Seaman was given a new car; he’s received countless awards and will be a parade marshal. No doubt that a book deal and perhaps a movie will follow. He’s famous. Everything that has and is happening with Mr. Seaman creates society’s image for today’s teacher. Society loves the hero – Batman, The Incredibles, Avengers, Captain America, etc. Just check the listings at your local box office. THE LASTING EFFECT OF THE TACKLE. Undoubtedly, more school districts will embrace an aggressive response to a school shooter. This will transfer into school safety trainings, which are already para-military in their design. DIRECT CAUSE vs. ROOT CAUSE. Mr. Seaman addressed a direct cause. The root cause of why this student brought handguns to school and fired upon others – the root cause of why this wasn’t detected and then reported, will be countered with, “Does it really matter? The teacher took out the bad guy.” I conducted a search in Google Scholar with the terms “School Threat” + “Reporting”. Sadly, it returned only 14 results. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com David will respond to comments & emails. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. The show adheres to nondiscrimination principles while seeking to bring forward productive discourse & debate on topics relevant to personal or institutional safety. Email David: thesafetydoc@gmail.com LOOKING FOR DR. TIMOTHY LUDWIG, PHD? Dr. Perrodin’s “Safety Doc Podcast” negotiates school and community safety. To be informed about industrial safety, please contact Appalachian State University Professor Dr. Timothy Ludwig, PhD, at www.safety-doc.com. Article discussed in this episode: 'Hero' Teacher released from hospital after Indiana school shooting, says congresswoman. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/25/students-teacher-swatted-guns-away-tackled-accused-school-shooter-while-suffering-3-gunshot-wounds/?utm_term=.a6da7a6e28af