An accident victim who had not been wearing a seat belt received trauma to his forehead when he was thrown against the windshield. The physicians in the emergency room worried that his brain stem may have been driven inferiorly through the foramen magnum. To help assess this, they quickly took a standard X-ray film of his head and searched for the position of the pineal gland. How could anyone expect to find this tiny, boneless gland in a radiograph?

B.L., 17, had a compression fracture at the C5-C6 after jumping into a river from a bridge and slamming into a submerged rock. Fortunately, she was saved by a companion who had first-aid expertise and worked to limit any collateral damage. B.L. was unable to move her limbs, feel touch, or have reflexes in her limbs when she arrived at the emergency room. Describe why it is impossible to determine the entire amount of lasting damage during this initial time frame.

Ambulance response time. Geographical Analysis (Jan. 2010) presented a study of emergency medical service (EMS) ability to meet the demand for an ambulance. In one example, the researchers presented the following scenario. An ambulance station has one vehicle and two demand locations, $\mathrm{A}$ and $\mathrm{B}$. The probability that the ambulance can travel to a location in under 8 minutes is $.58$ for location $\mathrm{A}$ and $.42$ for location $\mathrm{B}$. The probability that the ambulance is busy at any point in time is $.3$. Find the probability that EMS can meet the demand for an ambulance at location B.

A nuclear reactor is equipped with two independent automatic shutdown systems to shut down the reactor when the core temperature reaches the danger level. Neither system is perfect. System A shuts down the reactor 90% of the time when the danger level is reached. System B does so 80% of the time. The reactor is shut down if either system works.

Now simulate 100 trials of the reactor's response to an emergency of this kind. Estimate the probability that it will shut down. This probability is higher than the probability that either system working alone will shut down the reactor.

While you are talking with your friend at an expensive restaurant, she quickly stops in midswallow and looks panicked. When you ask what is wrong, she indicates that she can’t speak and runs toward the restroom. What should you do? Suppose that your first aid does not work---what procedure might emergency medical personnel use to help your her?

A vehicle is stuck on the railroad tracks as a 430,000 lb locomotive is approaching with a speed of 75 mph. As soon as the problem is detected, the locomotive’s emergency brakes are activated, locking the wheels and causing the locomotive to slide. If the coefficient of kinetic friction between the locomotive and the track is 0.45, what is the minimum distance d at which the brakes must be applied to avoid a collision? What would that distance be if instead of a locomotive, there was a $30 \times 106 lb$ train? Treat the locomotive and the train as particles, assume that the railroad tracks are rectilinear and horizontal, and note that only the locomotive’s brakes are applied.

As a young design engineer you are asked to design an emergency braking parachute system for use with a military aircraft of mass 9500 kg. The plane lands at 350 km/hr, and the parachute system alone must slow the airplane to 100 km/hr in less than 1200 m. Find the minimum diameter required for a single parachute, and for three noninterfering parachutes. Plot the airplane speed versus distance and versus time. What is the maximum “g-force” experienced?

T.W. is a 22-year-old man who fell SO feet from a chairlift while skiing and landed on hard-packed snow. He is now at the emergency department (ED) with a suspected TS-T6 fracture with paraplegia.
Insert Foley catheter
ECG monitoring
Immobilize the cervical spine
Oxygen at 4 L per nasal cannula
Initiate two large bore IVs
Neurologic assessment every hour
Apply warming blankets as needed
Describe a plan for implementing these physician's orders

In a study of patients arriving at a hospital emergency room, the gender of the patients is considered, together with whether the patients are younger or older than 30 years of age, and whether or not the patients are admitted to the hospital. It is found that $45\%$ of the patients are male, $30\%$ of the patients are younger than 30 years of age, $15\%$ of the patients are females older than 30 years of age who are admitted to the hospital, and $21\%$ of the patients are females younger than 30 years of age. What proportion of the patients are females older than 30 years of age who are not admitted to the hospital?

A car passenger buckles himself in with a seat belt and holds his $18-\mathrm{kg}$ toddler on his lap. Use the work-energy principle to answer the following questions. (a) While traveling $25\mathrm{~m}/\mathrm{s}$, the driver has to make an emergency stop over a distance of $45\mathrm{~m}$. Assuming constant deceleration, how much force will the arms of the parent need to exert on the child during this deceleration period? Is this force achievable by an average parent?

Study of why EMS workers leave the job. A study of fulltime emergency medical service (EMS) workers published in the Journal of Allied Health (Fall 2011) found that only about 3% leave their job in order to retire. (See Exercise $3.45$, p. 158.) Assume that the true proportion of all fulltime EMS workers who leave their job in order to retire is $p=.03$. In a random sample of 1,000 full-time EMS workers, let $\hat{p}$ represent the proportion who leave their job in order to retire. Compute $P(\hat{p}<.05)$. Interpret this result.

Hos pitals typically req uire backup generators to provide electricity in the event of a power outage. Assume that emergency backup generato rs fai l 22% of the times when they are needed (based on data from Arshad Mansoor, senior vice president with the Electric Power Research In stitute). A hospital has two backup generators so that power is avail able if one of them fails during a power outage. Find the probability that both generators fail during a power outage.

While playing on her swing set, 10-year-old Rebecca falls and breaks her right leg. At the emergency room, the doctor tells her parents that the proximal end of the tibia where the epiphysis meets the diaphysis is fractured. The fracture is properly set and eventually heals. During a routine physical when she is 18, Rebecca learns that her right leg is 2.54 cm (1 in.) shorter than her left. What might account for this difference?

(a) A light-rail commuter train accelerates at a rate of 1.35 m/s². How long does it take to reach its top speed of 80.0 km/h, starting from rest? (b) The same train ordinarily decelerates at a rate of 1.65 m/s². How long does it take to come to a stop from its top speed? (c) In emergencies, the train can decelerate more rapidly, coming to rest from 80.0 km/h in 8.30 s. What is its emergency acceleration in meters per second squared?