I’ll tell you this .. any day that I can drive around the #rural Iowa countryside & listen to The Big Show on NEWSRADIO 1040 WHO is a good day. Two good days in a row for me! But .. I’ve missed my friends & learning in Las Vegas with Mattox/Vegas TCCACS.

Hey .. #Rural friends .. ⁦ACS COT⁩ is working on the standards for Level IV Trauma Center verification and we need your wisdom & insight. Time is running out & this is our chance to HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD! Please take the time & follow the link! bisfacs.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_55…

No picture .. just pride that Iowa Methodist Medical Center Trauma Services has partnered with Bondurant Emergency Services & Iowa Governor’s School Safety Bureau to teach EVERY teacher in EVERY school in Bondurant-Farrar CSD about Stop the Bleed ACS. This is OUR community. Andrew Trau

This is my boss! How fortunate & proud I am!

Today is National Stop the Bleed ACS day. Such a pleasure to host Iowa legislators to tour Iowa Methodist Medical Center Trauma Services and learn to save a life with #StopTheBleed! Look at Eddie Andrews applying the tourniquet to Carlos Pelaez, MD, MHA! Andrew Trau Beth Fuchsen

Thanks for being with us today! We love to tell/share our story .. and, yes, together we can save lives! #StopTheBleed. Iowa Methodist Medical Center Trauma Services

Special trip downtown. Hassle with parking, security, etc. YES - worth it to have the opportunity to speak with Joni Ernst staff about important things like #StopTheBleed & #Rural workforce issues. Thanks to John & Marvin for welcoming me. ACS COT

Tomorrow I will be in Boston with many friends for #ACSCC2023 and the ACS COT meetings. Today .. in an Iowa field discing corn stubble with a 1953 John Deere 60. #rural #AmericaNeedsFarmers

Great example of why the open discussion in Iowa needs to move forward in the next legislative session. Iowa Medical Society

Another challenge disproportionately felt in #rural areas is EMS care. Thanks to LT Adam Gregg for hearing us out today & for working on solutions. Great day for a tractor ride! #PowerofRural Natl Organization of State Offices of Rural Health

7 years ago today - November 28, 2016 - we presented the first complete #StopTheBleed course in the state of Iowa at the Firestone plant in Des Moines. Wow - how far things have come since then! Iowa Methodist Medical Center Trauma Services

Yesterday wrapped up the ACS COT Region 7 "Advances in Trauma" meeting. So much fun & learning! Great to see friends! Years ago I developed the habit of recording the "pearls" - nuggets of information that I find interesting - from each talk. Here they are! #Region7Rocks

My Mom has been at our home for a couple of days over Christmas; I have mostly been working. I found this on my desk at home before heading in to the hospital. I’m 56 years old - how fortunate I am! ❤️

Trauma friends - how do you handle this? Patient with a medical event needing chest compressions. No other mechanism of injury. There are CPR-related rib and or/sternal fractures, without pneumothorax, hemothorax, pulmonary contusion, etc. What is the role of the trauma service?

“You have to act on what you see, not what you think you know” - that is surgical gold from Alexander Eastman at Mattox/Vegas TCCACS

Pleasure to participate in this discussion with Great Plains Center and Brian Feist about farm emergency preparedness. With longer EMS response times, Stop the Bleed ACS is especially important in #rural areas. Podcast here: bit.ly/3Uo6tYb

There are lots of great things about being in Iowa. I love the smell of dirt in the spring. I’m planting a new section of raspberries! #rural

It is way easier to get tomatoes at the grocery store or the farmers market, but I love dirt on my hands and the smell of fresh wheat straw mulch. I don’t even eat tomatoes! Ha! #rural

“You need to know how to get out of trouble, you just don’t want to look too good doing it.” That was an important message from one of my mentors many years ago. Problems are better avoided than solved.