Tracheo-innominate artery fistulas are a rare complication of indwelling tracheotomies with a very high mortality rate. Due to the rare occurrence of this surgical emergency, most medical providers have little to no training or experience in recognizing, stabilizing, and repairing this life-threatening condition. Simulation of rare emergencies helps close knowledge gaps of medical providers at all levels. Although many providers may never experience these emergencies throughout their careers in clinical medicine, it is imperative that they distinguish and apply techniques for temporizing these life-threatening conditions in order to decrease patient mortality. This novel, low-cost, and easy-to-implement simulation is geared towards this goal and has been successfully tested in small group simulations at one academic center in San Antonio, Texas.

Ophthalmic artery occlusion is a rare condition with a high morbidity, typically associated with cardiovascular disease and embolic or thrombotic phenomena. We present an atypical case of a 22-year-old active duty airman without comorbidities, who presented with acute, painless, monocular vision loss, found to have a right-sided, ophthalmic artery occlusion. The etiology for his vision loss was likely secondary to a granulomatous process at the orbital apex, causing compressive ischemia.