Yes Ma'am. I agree with you completely. It takes special people to work under that kind of stress on a daily basis. Even after the incident, I feel very close to some of those nurses as they were almost family in there to us. We brought the little ones back to visit two weeks ago.... it was great and the staff loved it.
Just to help you picture this... here is a little aid I made. Sorry the original explanation was so confusing. I tried to reword it several times but it really takes a pic.
Below you will see a green chest tube that will be unattached and connected to the syringe for manual suction. As the plunger is withdrawn, it creates negative pressure causing air and fluid to move in the direction of the orange arrows. That is good.
The Red chest tube is the one that is allowing air back into the lung. AS you can see it is still connected to the blue/red hoses which 3 way connect into the pleural vac (PV). These connections have with no valves.
As you can see, the Blue/red hose is open to air from where it was disconnected from the green chest tube to allow for manual suction with the syringe. The PV is only pulling small amounts of air at -30cfm so its pressure to pull air from the hoses is negated by the open to air ending in the blue/red. Therefore, room air will travel in the direction of the orange arrows back into the chest through the red chest tube every time there is suction created by the syringe.
To prove my point, when they suctioned with the syringe they got unlimited CC's of air out of his lung. THey would pull 50cc's out... cap it and reset plunger and then pull another 50cc's out. Even that did not set off a warning sign that something was leaking air into this lung from somewhere other than his pneumo. Anyway, Doc T did that help? Hope so.
Sorry about posting a baby pic. When I talk about how sick the little guy was I get all mushy and crap. I will refrain from posting family/nonSF pics in the future Admins, I swear.
Eagle, I hope the complaint coming from you actually gets some attention. Good luck
PS- not all civilians are incompetent. I finished third in my class with special honors and applied/got accepted/ and I turned down specialty school due to family obligations. I work for the DoD because it is a honor and it is also 4 minutes from where I live. I get to treat guys for no cost so I get to do what is best for them, not what can be afforded.
I know you weren't shooting at me. But please remember, some of those civies may just be the real deal! LOL
I thought I worked a pretty good deal with all the specialty pay incentives and retention bonuses. Damn, I think I am going to go feel sorry for myself now!! LOL