Operation Flight Nurse: Real-Life Medical Emergencies

Life-Flight-Teams are called to transport those in need of critical medical care to an institution capable of managing their condition. On occasion, life-altering events can be prevented from ever occurring, or measures may be taken by both patients and medical providers to reduce the impact these events have. This book was written for two reasons, to enlighten those curious about the flight-nurse profession and to share some take home lessons from these medical emergencies with the public, nurses, and EMS providers. The author is an acute care nurse practitioner for the Cleveland Metro Life Flight Team. After being asked frequently about his career as a life-flight nurse, David Kaniecki decided to answer this question by sharing his more memorable experiences as a life-flight nurse, linking each story to a teachable event. In his book, he describes many of his exciting adventures of critical care transport with various emergent disease processes. For those unfamiliar to critical care, he helps explain these diseases in an easy to understand format prior to sharing his story. David believes the greatest teaching methods are through real life experiences. After each story, he shares key lessons that can be taken away from these events.

David M. Kaniecki MSN, ACNP-C, RN, CCRN is currently an acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) on the Cleveland Metro Life Flight Team in Northeast Ohio. He is responsible for the management of patients requiring transport via helicopter, fixed wing, or ground ambulance. David has practiced in a variety of critical care settings and cared for patients of multiple disease pathologies. Before becoming an ACNP, he worked as a staff nurse in a surgical intensive care unit (ICU), medical ICU, neurological ICU, cardiovascular ICU, coronary ICU and ICU float pool. With the skills acquired from his experiences in the inpatient hospital setting, in 2008 he became a flight transport nurse for the Cleveland Clinic Critical Care Transport Team to practice in unorthodox environments. David has transported patients needing extreme measures of life support to higher levels of care both in the United States and globally. Mr. Kaniecki first began his nursing career in 2005 after earning an Associate Degree in Nursing from North Central State College (NCSC). He later obtained a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in 2011 where he is now pursuing a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP). David is a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) and holds many certifications and credentials including: Board Certified Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Board Certified Registered Nurse, Critical Care Registered Nurse, Advanced Trauma Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Neonatal Resuscitation, Basic Life Support, and is NIH Stroke Scale Certified.