Bursting to spread the word

What I hope to create here is mainly a means to educate those that might follow it on what I see in Biphasic Cuirass Ventilation (BCV). I have so much in my head and so much to say about it I have a difficult time figuring where to start. I have a long experience as a Respiratory Therapist, and I am happy to say I have had a very stimulating and satisfying career so far with very few periods of burnout and many high points. I can readily characterize my feeling about my career and vocation as passionate. I love Respiratory Therapy. I love taking care of patients, interacting with their families, working as a team with my peers, and as a matter of fact I have a strong sense of camaraderie with other RTs, particularly those that share my passion for our special profession. I will get much of my past experience in my profile, or cover it here possibly, but what this is about is discussing and describing BCV. The title of this blog is Biphasic Cuirass Ventilation and Me. It is my intention at this point to make it more about BCV than me. I do need to start somewhere and that seems best to be to start with me. Once I get some things out of the way, I will get down to BCV. I will start my introduction by returning to the 2005 AARC Convention in San Antonio, but I will save that for next time.

To wrap this first post entitled Bursting to Spread the Word up I would like to relate that almost exactly one year ago I was looking at a major change in the direction of my career. I was working as a RT Director in a small LTAC Hospital in Fort Worth Texas. I had started in the position with the opening on the facility four years prior and had enjoyed an amazing run. It was a highly satisfying and enjoyable position at a facility where I was really appreciated. I felt I had managed myself into the enviable position of big fish in the little pond. I was also very certain we were making a great difference. I knew my competition and how we compared and I was very certain our care and results were without a doubt excellent. At the TSRC Conference in August of 2010 I was offered the position I now hold, that of Clinical Coordinator for Hayek Medical. Hayek Medical is the sole distributor for United Hayek medical products in the US and Canada. The only product United Hayek currently has available in the US is the Hayek RTX Ventilator. The offer that was made me at TSRC last summer was not the first one that came for this position, but it was the most intriguing for many reasons. As I considered if the risks of leaving a well established and comfortable position for what I was not sure what were worth it I made inquiries of a few of my associates in medical sales. One inquiry went out informally to several of the long experienced clinical people in what I still call Respironics. Initially no one knew what the Hayek RTX was. Then I heard back from an old timer with the company and he remembered the Hayek Oscillator, which is an older less functional version of Dr. Hayek's RTX and what he said stayed with me. "It is a good device, but hardly anyone knows about it, and it will be a missionary sell". The more I learned about BCV and the more I thought about the other technology changes I have witnessed in my career, I was so sure that I had to take the position. I still feel that spreading the word about BCV is more than a job. It is a calling. So just like a missionary I am bursting to spread the word. In what I get posted here I hope I can do that to some additional degree. Am I biased about the benefits of BCV? Well    I have to disclaim some conflict of interest when I speak about it, but I honestly know that for what is indicated it is in most cases a better way and produces better clinical results more quickly. I say it all the time and feel it to my core: In my over 30 years as a clinical respiratory therapist whose main practice was critical care I have never seen any single device or therapeutic intervention that offers the same potential of altering the clinical course of patients with cardio-pulmonary compromise than BCV.