California Society of Anesthesiologists Bulletin 62-4 - (Page 2)
EDITOR'S NOTES
Airliner Crashes and
Patient Handoffs -
Is There a Connection?
By Michael W. Champeau, MD, Editor
T
his past summer, on
Although many anesthesiologists are licensed pilots, I'm
July 6, Asiana Airlines
not. My late father used his GI benefits to learn to fly after
flight 214 crashed while
he returned from World War II and, perhaps subconsciously
attempting to land at San
wanting to follow in his footsteps, I took a few flying lessons
Francisco International
myself at the small rural airport near my home the summer
Airport. As the first
after I graduated from college. As a child, I loved listening
fatal crash of a regularly
to my father's stories of flying. He never flew a plane with
scheduled commercial
a radio of any kind, and used Rand McNally road maps for
airliner in the U.S. since
navigation. When he faced a headwind, cars on the highways
the Colgan Air 3407 (Continental Connection) crash near
that he was using as his course-plotting aids would frequently
Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 12, 2009, the incident made
overtake him, his small plane unable to match their speed.
worldwide headlines.
He even claimed - perhaps in a bit of an exaggeration -
that on particularly windy days, he could see dogs keeping
Coincidentally, the destroyed Asiana aircraft came to rest
pace with his progress over the terrain as they ran through
directly across a narrow inlet of the San Francisco Bay from
the fields below.
one of the ambulatory surgery centers where I occasionally
work. During the days before the wreckage was hauled
So although I'm not a pilot, I've had a long-standing
away, the floor-to-ceiling windows of the third-floor facility
fascination with aviation. Between my various organized-
provided unimpeded views of the burned-out fuselage. Each
anesthesia commitments and my love of recreational travel,
time I looked out the window, I couldn't help but speculate
I fly over 100,000 miles a year, always eavesdropping on the
on what could possibly have gone wrong during the landing
conversations between the pilots and air traffic controllers
of a modern Boeing 777 aircraft on a beautiful San Francisco
when the captains on United let us listen in.
summer day.
But it's not just aviation that rivets my interest. Inextricably
intertwined with my interest in aviation is an interest in
failure analysis. I've followed investigations into air crashes
for decades, probably irrationally hoping that superior
knowledge, even as a passenger, might somehow protect
2
| CSA Bulletin
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of California Society of Anesthesiologists Bulletin 62-4
Airliner Crashes and Patient Handoffs — Is There a Connection?
It Is a New Day
LPAD Gears Up for a New Year
Full House? Playing Political Poker ‘Under the Dome’
CSA FALL SEMINAR 2013: ANOTHER HAWAIIAN SUCCESS
The ASA Annual Meeting
UPCOMING CSA ANESTHESIA SEMINARS
Is ‘HAL’ Coming to a GI Suite Near You?
Bookending Propofol — A Technique to Avoid PONV
Process and Outcome: Lessons from Fountain Valley
An Educational Gift from the Internet
A Major Challenge to Your Practice from Sacramento
Propofol Dreams: Of Nightmares and Déjà Vu?
NEW MEMBERS
CALIFORNIA AND NATIONAL NEWS
Fall 2013
California Society of Anesthesiologists Bulletin 62-4
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