Flatline to Lifeline With Dr. Long

Survival of Salt Water and Sand Aspiration This middle-aged woman drove her SUV to a beach on the Oregon coast to watch the ocean in a winter storm. She parked her vehicle on the beach, about 100 yards from the surf. A “sneaker” wave, much larger than usual, swept up the beach and washed her under her SUV and trapped her there. She inhaled sand and salt water, causing acute respiratory distress. B...

Pediatric Cold Fresh Water Drowning in a Portland Metro Area Case Study Summary This 4-year-old boy got away from his mother and disappeared near an area where Johnson Creek meanders and drains the foot hills of the Cascade mountains in Clackamas County on its way to the Willamette River.  This happened during the winter time. While the mother looked frantically for her son, a Metro bus driver in...

Rural Trauma Road Traffic Accident in SW Washington State Case Study This young man was the sole occupant in a car at an intersection, when his car was “t-boned” by another vehicle with a drunk driver. The accident was witnessed by other drivers who called on their cell phones to get help. Rural EMTs are mostly volunteers who work and have to be called in. The EMTs arrive at the scene approximatel...

Mt. Adams Rescue A college climbing party was descending from the summit. An estimated 400 pound boulder broke free from ice and rolled down the mountain striking a 19 y.o. girl on the back, breaking ribs, thoracic spines, and shattering  her pelvis. She was conscious, and moving her limbs. She showed signs of impending shock from blood loss from her injuries  An emergency physician and his climbi...

Consider a world where increasing survival rates in patients typically deemed dead on arrival could be the norm. Is dead actually dead? Is it an assumption or a fact? In Flatline to Lifeline we explore the very real potential for survival within the medical field of trauma and near-death experiences.  During his 50-year career, Dr. Long and his team radically altered the approach to trauma care by...