$125? I can think of more useful things to have on my keychain. My wife used to work for EMS in a large city and was told that over the past decade they'd only performed one or two emergency tracheotomies, so they stopped training EMTs to do it. Say 10 calls a day per truck, 16 trucks...one in half a million calls requires it. You'd get way more bang for the buck out of a defibrillator.

Someone in a line of work where they'd feel comfortable doing emergency tracheotomies can probably afford the absurd pricetag, but I agree that I'd love to see a keychain defibrillator even more, if only to prank friends with it

When I took an EMT course, they pointed out that in a pinch you can make a passable trach tube from the lower half of many ball point pens. Just be very, very carefully where you insert it.

$125 for what looks an awful lot like a standard "sports ball pump" inflation needle?

My first reaction was -- wow, that's overpriced (and, as marcus said, that it looks a lot like an inflation needle for a pump). That said, it's actually four pieces of machined metal rather than one, and wouldn't have economies of scale working for it.

Nifty, but I have to agree that the money would be better spent elsewhere. Now, if you or a child/loved one had a peanut or bee sting allergy, and anaphylaxis was a real fear,.. Even then, I'd probably purchase several EpiPens.

My take in 2005: http://www.bookofjoe.com/2005/11/behindthemedspe_4.html

My take today: Same as it was then, with this elaboration:

As a board-certified anesthesiologist with over 30 years of managing airway emergencies numbering in the hundreds, I would be frightened to employ this device for the first time — and I know as much as anyone about the underlying anatomy.

Why? Because the landmarks for placement, even for an expert, are sometimes nonexistent, and you have to make a guess.

See: http://www.operationalmedicine.org/TextbookFiles/FMST_20008/Block%202/CricB.jpg

In the hands of an amateur, a punctured thyroid artery (it's close to the cricothyroid membrane: ground zero) might quickly cause an expanding hemorrhage, compressing/occluding the trachea and making resuscitation impossible.

Nevertheless — I wouldn't hesitate to give it a shot, because the alternative is certain brain damage or death (you get five minutes — by the clock — before irreversible cerebral anoxia occurs).

For the amateur, I'd say go for it — and pray.

Crikey this whole entry - with comments, makes me shudder!

I've been in EMS for 10 years. In order to make a needle cric such as this work, you need a fairly high-pressure oxygen supply for this to be even marginally effective (it's called jet insufflation, and is the only way to get any meaningful volume into the lungs).

Without it, I don't see a meaningful increase in survivability time while remaining neurologically intact (e.g. without widespread brain tissue death).

This could perhaps be a useful item for decompressing pneumothoracies (sucking chest wounds, leading to lung collapse, from penetration of the chest wall), and that requires less training/exactness than what they propose using this for. Still not for the untrained, however, as if you mess up and go on the wrong side of the rib, you'll puncture arteries and nerves. That would save a lot of lives in situations where you are far from care.

As tools go, this one is is not "Cool". Except in the opinion of the suffocating fellow who happens to need it.

What NONSENSE! First of all, a tracheotomy is NOT the preferred field procedure in the VERY rare cases something of the sort is called for. The proper technique is called a cricothyroid puncture.

Second, the device shown looks to have the diameter of a cocktail straw. Try breathing through a cocktail straw, or the barrel of a ball point pen. Doesn't work very well.

I spent 10 years working as a Paramedic, handling some 2,000 cases a year. In all that time I saw maybe four cases where it _might_ have been appropriate.

Cutting someones throat to save their life is not for the untrained.

Why not just use a Halligan Bar?

@c-dub, you have made my day.

Mine, too, c-dub.

I needed a laugh after reading this thread.

As an EMS provider, I think if I was choking and turning blue, and if I saw some Jethro coming at me with this thing, my last breaths would be spent throwing objects at and eventually pummeling this person. I might die, but it would not have been in vain.

Thank you c-dub and Spo. You made me laugh!

Clearly there are lots of folks who view this site - many seem to have professional creds. Why is it in the past two weeks we have had two reviews of curious-but-rarely-if-ever-used items? This, the Halligan Bar, and let's now forget the bulletproof backpack, seem to be skewing this site towards Absurd Tools, not Cool Tools.

Where to in the U.P are you headed? I'm a native yooper, even though I hate admiting that!

I would hope that I wouldn't confuse this with my Cash Can. I don't think jamming a 50-dollar bill into anyone's neck would save their life.

I am an ENT specialist (23 years) and have owned two of these in the last 20 years. I HAVE NEVER HAD TO USE IT although I have entered several ERs and ICUs with the thing taken apart and ready to establish an airway for a dying patient. Fortunately most of these patients were actually stable enough for standard tracheotomy. This IS NOT a tool for the average Joe or even a trained EMT or Surgeon who is not intimately familiar with the neck anatomy and who doesn't perform "routine" tracheotomies. I must remind everyone that a ballpoint pen or pocket knife is no less dangerous in the wrong hands and less likely to work for this purpose. As an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist I am the one everyone looks to in a true emergency airway obstruction and I can think of no better device to have on my person for that untimely event that this one. I am also a residency director and am purchasing three of these for my graduating chief residents this year.
I have gotten the thing apart on occasion when walking through "unsafe" areas. I expect that it would be a great personal protective gadget in a pinch. Plus the fob allows me to quickly find my car keys in my pocket.
Oh, don't try taking this thing through airport security.