EMS: Erik & Matt Show

In this episode of the EMS Show, Erik and Matt talk about their pet peeves. Seems like the world has lost its manners. When you work in close environments, it's important to be mindful of those you work with. Getting along with your crew or coworkers is a big part of the EMS world.

On this very special episode of the Erik & Matt Show (EMS), Dr. Erik Axene and Matt Ball reflect on where they were on September 11, 2001. As we honor the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we take a moment to remember the heroes and civilians who perished that day. Join us as we pause, reflect, and ensure that we never forget the sacrifices made on that tragic day.

In this episode of the Erick and Matt Show (EMS) we discuss the immunocompromised patient. These are very common patients, and they can have mortality rates as high as some of the worst trauma patients. We will discuss how to recognize and manage these high-risk patients.

In this episode of the Erik and Matt Show (EMS), we talk about resiliency. Whether you work in a hospital setting or prehospital, working in healthcare can be difficult. Especially in emergency medicine. From long hours, high stress situations and witnessing traumatic events, it's important as healthcare workers that we take care of our mental health. Part of that is being resilient. Listen in while Dr. Axene and Matt discuss this important topic. 

In this episode of the Erik and Matt Show (EMS), we discuss a recent article that talked about the 80% narrative. Meaning 80% of calls that the fire service runs are EMS. While not every department runs 80% EMS calls, it is the majority of what we do. Erik and Matt talk about this fact and how the fire service has evolved over the years. 

In this episode of the Erik and Matt Show (EMS) we explore "just culture" in EMS and fire service—a value-based accountability model that balances honest mistake reporting with appropriate accountability to improve patient safety and team trust.

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show (EMS) with Erik Axene and Matt Ball, an emergency physician and a firefighter/paramedic break down how to recognize and manage pediatric sepsis in the field starting from why kids compensate so well that they look fine right up until they fall off the cliff. They explain why sepsis belongs on your differential for any sick kid, not just the nursing-home patient. Walk through the pediatric assessment triangle and the age-normal vitals that tell you a child is in trouble before the blood pressure ever drops, and cover the history that changes everything: wet diapers, feeding, fever and the meds already given. From cap refill over SpO2 to fluids before hypotension and resuscitating before you intubate, they lay out the field judgment that catches a septic kid early, plus a down-and-dirty drug-math trick that takes the fear out of weight-based dosing. Early recognition saves lives, and with little kids, delay kills.

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show (EMS) with Erik Axene and Matt Ball, an emergency physician and a firefighter/paramedic break down how to recognize and manage dialysis emergencies in the field, starting from what healthy kidneys actually do so the failures finally make sense. They connect the volume-overloaded dialysis patient to the congestive heart failure patient, walk through why missing a single session can trigger a cascade of problems, and explain why you cannot lower a patient's potassium in the back of the truck, only buy them time with calcium and albuterol until definitive care.

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show (EMS), Erik and Matt unpack the 12 cognitive biases that quietly drive missed diagnoses and bad calls in prehospital medicine. They cover anchoring, confirmation bias, premature closure, availability bias, framing, overconfidence, diagnostic momentum, action bias, search satisfaction, the Dunning-Kruger effect, authority bias, and sunk cost. Each bias is paired with a real field story, including Erik's anxiety patient who turned out to be in florid DKA, the SVT call that was actually WPW, the prolonged extrication where the patient was secretly having a STEMI and a fractured spleen, and Erik's now famous case of lecturing his medics about not anchoring while completely missing a necrotic appendix in the back of the ambulance.

When seconds decide whether someone walks out of the hospital or never speaks again, your EMS stroke assessment has to be fast, accurate, and repeatable. In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show (EMS) with Erik Axene and Matt Ball, an emergency physician and a firefighter/paramedic break down how to recognize a stroke in the field, why "last known well" is the single most important question you can ask the family, and how to spot a Large Vessel Occlusion before you ever leave the driveway. Erik and Matt walk through Cincinnati, LAMS, and FAST, then dig into the subtle presentations that get missed: Bell's palsy mimics, posterior strokes, dizziness, and the wake-up stroke.