Jellybean 103 Butchery and Ethics

Once upon a time there was a nice man called Gene. I didn’t call him Gene though. I called him a Butcher.

Gene Benoit @mededgene is a flight paramedic rom Vancouver. He does have a bit of the Val Kilmer about him and despite the nick-name of Iceman, he is not very icy.

Gene and colleagues have been trying to create an affordable, realistic, cruelty free surgical airway training device. I’m all up for most things that are “affordable, realistic and cruelty free” .
Gene tells the story of his interaction with the drama that surrounds the surgical airway. It really does seem to get people a little bit wound up. It got him wound up. So he set about unwinding that. And the next thing you know he is making 3D trainers that replicate human tissue without requiring the sale of your own human tissue (kidneys etc) to be able to buy one!

I claim no credit at all for inspiring this but I will suggest that one should never under-estimate the power of what you say.

Gene can teach me how to wield a scalpel and get past a troublesome voice-box but I shall have to teach myself how to control my troublesome voice. In the recording it does sound like Gene calls me out for being a rude dude but in truth we had agreed before to start that way. I was just acting as if I had been put on the spot, one listener has suggested I was a little too convincing.
Have a listen and hear about fear and loathing on the airway education trail, how an ethicist might possibly land by helicopter and save your life by stabbing you in the neck and where Peter Singer fits into critical care education.

In the conversation a few other things came up. The Jellybean with ethicist Prof Julian Savulescu. The educational project that Gene asked me about is www.EnquiringMinds.org which is a charity (Public Benevolent Institution with Deductible Gift Recipient status) which I set up with Dr Andrew Jacobs to try to change mathematics education not dissimilar to how FOAMed has changed medical education.

The Jellybean Podcast is a funny little thing. We advocate and collaborate. In the coming months there will be a load of new interviews. A very mixed bag of different subjects and different voices from different events and different backgrounds.

Look out for a series co-hosted with www.feminem.org and two with www.nowem.org . We have a collection of rising international leaders in emergency medicine from the Pacific, Africa and South America. We are very proud to be sharing #SMACCreach interviews with www.badEM.co.za and www.afjem.com focused on the rapidly developing emergency medicine discipline in countries across Africa. There are a bunch of interviews with young nurses, doctors and paramedics just getting going in education. (#NewWaveFOAM). There are two great interviews from www.dontforgetthebubbles.com. (Don’t Forget to go to DFTB2019 in London!)

And there are a few surprises too.

Diversity. Variety. Inclusiveness. These podcasts are for the enquiring mind with eclectic interests. I have often said that I would like to interview pretty much everyone that listens to this podcast.

Talk to us, we will listen.