I’m an emergency and critical care medicine specialist. For me, the difficult airway is a defining moment.

The hardest part of the surgical airway is most commonly the decision to perform it.

I feel like this is public health’s difficult airway and we are still watching ...

Watching the PGY 1 manage the airway. Take over. Be definitive. Act now. Call for help. Collaborate with colleagues. Get it together. There isn’t any more time.

We need a regional nimble response that is measured but swift and we need it now.

I don’t want more practice caring for critically ill patients on ventilators with COVID 19. I don’t need more lessons on lung mechanics or more conversations with families of patients who are not doing well (sometimes with SDMs who are also admitted!).

All age groups are affected now. It is completely implausible that this will remain a disease of the young.

Just like it’s less and less likely we will be successful at the airway if we change nothing.

Change something.
Act now.
Lead authentically.
Be heros.
It is time.