EMCrit FOAM Feed · Scott D. Weingart, MD FCCM

EMCrit Wee - An Airway Discussion with Jonathan St George of the Protected Airway Collaborative

March 15, 2026·31 min·2 clips

Scott Weingart and Jonathan St George explain why successful video intubations can still contain dangerous performance errors.

1. EMCrit FOAM Feed's EMCrit Wee examines emergency airway management in 2026 through the 2025 DAS guidelines, the RSI trial, and video laryngoscopy practice. 2. Scott Weingart hosts Jonathan St George, an emergency physician and airway educator who created ProtectedAirway.com to develop durable procedural skills. 3. St George's central educational concern is that clinicians are “drowning in content” while lacking accessible practice that connects digital learning with physical skills. 4. The 2025 DAS guidelines receive broad approval from both speakers, but Weingart objects to a three-attempt sequence followed by a specialist's fourth attempt. 5. St George says emergency clinicians should plan for failure because anatomical prediction is unreliable, citing a Danish airway registry estimate of 93% incorrect difficult-airway prediction. 6. Weingart distinguishes resuscitative airway management from anesthesia airway management by emphasizing physiologic instability, human-factors breakdown, and escalation from the first attempt. 7. Video laryngoscopy is treated as standard equipment rather than a complete solution, with both speakers describing off-midline views, poor positioning, excessive angulation, and weak lifting as recurring errors. 8. St George reviews GlideScope recordings with residents, while Weingart says their video trial found most observed errors during successful first-pass intubations. 9. The speakers call cricoid pressure a “zombie,” report that it made intubation harder nine times out of ten in anatomy-lab demonstrations, and question its lack of positive evidence. 10. Emergency physicians, critical-care clinicians, and airway educators seeking practical intubation training.

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