Remembering Dr. James Broselow
By Scott DeBoer, RN, MSN, CPEN, EMT-P, and Lisa DeBoer, NREMT-P/PI, CET, Pedi-Ed-Trics Emergency Medical Solutions
Our hearts are broken as we’ve just heard of the passing of a dear friend and mentor, Dr. Jim Broselow, who in 1986 with Dr. Bob Luten changed the world of pediatric emergency care forever.
Regrettably lost to history, the original “Broselow Tape” was devised with colored markers on a piece of leather by Jim’s wife Millie, and nearly 40 years later, the tape continues not only to be in use but improving and evolving.
For those health care professionals who are understandably stressed when confronted with caring for a critically ill or injured child, the Broselow Tape allowed for quick calculations of ideal body weight, as well as emergency equipment sizes and medication doses.
Jim related his story about “being a country ER physician who was scared of really sick kids… and so, with the help of Dr. Bob Luten and others, said there must be a better way.”
His vision was to allow “the tape to do the calculations, so caregivers could focus on the child and their families, and not doing math.”
From the system's humble inception in Hickory, North Carolina, to countries around the world, the care of sick children has been easier and safer thanks in part to his vision.
Dr. Broselow, we will forever miss you and are grateful beyond words for the legacy you have left to the children of our world. Goodbye dear friend, may we see you in Heaven someday and talk about all that you did on this side of eternity to make things better for all of us in emergency medical services. We love and miss you already. Rest in peace.
