Doc Talk with Monument Health

Summer in the Black Hills means sharing the trails with rattlesnakes, spiders and the occasional tick. Rapid City Hospital Pediatricians Tamra Lemley, M.D, and Kyle Lemley, M.D., break down snake bite basics, including why baby rattlesnakes can be more dangerous than adults and the hiking habits that actually prevent bites. John Tronnes, M.D., Family Medicine Physician at Lead-Deadwood Clinic then covers brown recluse and black widow bites and busts the old wives’ tales — no sucking out venom, no tourniquets — that could make a bite worse. A practical guide for anyone spending the summer outdoors with kids. 

Summer in South Dakota comes fast and doesn't last long, so it pays to be ready. In this episode, Dr. John Tronnes breaks down everything you need to know about heat stroke and heat exhaustion, including the one skin-check trick that tells you which one you're dealing with. Then Dr. Tamra and Dr. Kyle Lemley cover sun safety for kids, from the right SPF to why that old swim shirt in the garage might not be cutting it anymore.

Commercial Drivers are an essential part of South Dakota’s economy. However, when you are following a semi-truck on the interstate, or putting your kids on a school bus, you want to be rest assured that the operator won’t suffer a sudden, preventable medical emergency. Chad Storch, D.O., MPH, a board-certified Occupational and Aerospace Physician at Rapid City Clinic, Mount Rushmore Road, provides federally required Department of Transportation Medical Exams so that drivers can acquire or maintain their commercial driver's license status. In this discussion with Mark Houston, Dr. Storch details the work he does with the South Dakota DOT to keep our highways bustling, yet always safe.Whether you are a professional, long-haul trucker or an everyday motorist, there is plenty of useful information to take away from this discussion.

In this replay of Doc Talk with Monument Health, host Mark Houston sits down with Dr. Deanna Lassegard, an emergency medicine physician at Monument Health in Spearfish, to talk about what really happens in the ER around the Fourth of July. Dr. Lassegard breaks down the injuries she sees most, from sparkler burns that reach 1,800 degrees to the serious hand, face, and eye damage caused by mortars and bottle rockets. She shares why "safe" fireworks aren't always safe, who ends up in the ER most often, and the one piece of advice she'd give every holiday: alcohol and fireworks don't mix. It's a candid, practical conversation about celebrating the holiday without ending the night in the emergency department.

Gaddiel Rios, M.D., is the Primary Care Physician at MED360 by Monument Health in Rapid City. Dr. Rios tells Mark Houston about his history of military service and his medical career, including how he was initially drawn to technology and engineering before moving into medicine. As the only Physician at MED360, Dr. Rios covers a wide range of patients who have direct access without many of the intermediary complications that can be associated with Primary Care. Watch or listen to find out if MED 360 is for you.

Michael Huot, M.D., Anesthesiologist and Medical Director at the Pain Management Clinic in Rapid City is back for his third Doc Talk appearance, this time from a more personal angle. In February, he was Doc Talk host Mark Houston’s anesthesiologist for colorectal surgery, and that experience opens a wide-ranging conversation about what's actually happening while you're under anesthesia. Dr. Huot walks through the science of consciousness, the realities of trauma cases, malignant hyperthermia, the role of AI in the operating room and why anesthesiologists tend to be the chillest doctors in the building. Then, for the first time, the host gets put in the hot seat.