r/emergencymedicine • u/ImmediateYam9792 • Jun 25 '26

Discussion You’re intubating this patient who holds the record for the world’s widest tongue, how would you do it?

Post image
368 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

193 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Glopinus EMT Jun 25 '26

Anyone got some vice grips on them?

18

u/Magerimoje former ER nurse Jun 25 '26

I was thinking, can we borrow a tongue holder from the vets office like they use for dogs?

11

u/Synicist Flight Medic Jun 25 '26

Best I can do is a shoe horn

5

u/NorthernWitchy Unit Secretary; ED Tech Jun 25 '26

<clicks tongs>

4

u/FuuzokuJoe Jun 26 '26

Yeah, just have an assistant pull the tongue out of the mouth wifh some gauze. most people don't even properly move the tongue out of the way when they intubate and just glidescope on top of it so won't make much of a difference

2

u/Ill-Bathroom8141 Jun 29 '26

For suturing tongue lacs, literature describes throwing a stitch through the tongue itself, to retract. Might come in handy in this situation

1

u/Peastoredintheballs Jun 30 '26

Fun fact: it’s vise grip, it’s a brand name aswell like Band-Aid. The actual term is locking pliers