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Ambulance for obese patients to debut in Calgary

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Ambulance for obese patients to debut in Calgary
Updated Thu. Jun. 21 2007 10:00 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Marking a troubling trend towards obesity in Canada, a new ambulance built to accommodate patients weighing as much as 1,000 pounds is about to make its debut in Calgary.

The city's new "bariatric response team" will include an air-bag system to help transport obese patients onto stretchers and a hydraulic lift system to bring patients into the ambulance.

Specially trained paramedics will also be used to deal with obese patients.

The remote lift system, which costs about $30,000, automatically raises patients on a widened stretcher and into the ambulance.

Dr. David Lau, an endocrinologist who is also the president of Obesity Canada, called the measure a "good step forward."

"I do have a number of patients who are 500 pounds and up and they normally cannot be transferred anywhere," Lau told The Globe and Mail. "It may sound trivial and yet it's not. It's a big (problem), to pardon the pun."
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A standard ambulance stretcher can support roughly 500 pounds. That makes for quite a lift
for two paramedics as it doesn't include the weight of the stretcher and related equipment.
Over 500 pounds and the frame of the stretcher won't support the weight, no matter how many
people you have lifting.

Obese stretchers have been around a few years. I think I saw my first one roughly 8 years ago.
It was essentially a flat top, wide steel table with wheels. Powered, self lifting
undercarriages and hydraulic assisting devices have been added as well.

A number of jurisdictions will set aside an older ambulance with a heavy lift stretcher mounted
in it for such occasions.

Another problem that comes up and isn't addressed often is placing an obese patient into a
air ambulance or med-evac aircraft. I remember waiting on one occasion at a hangar while
mechanics removed several rows of seats before the patient would fit inside the cabin.



 
 
This reminds me of the night where I had to transport the same 400lb patient four times. We had to call another crew because we couldn't lift the stretcher. To top it off... she didn't live on the ground floor of her building. I couldn't move for two days after that one.

It's quite a comment on our society when we have to specially construct ambulances for our obese citizens.
 
ModlrMike said:
To top it off... she didn't live on the ground floor of her building. I couldn't move for two days after that one.
Click to expand...

This is why god invented firemen...  ;D
 
The likelihood that a patient's apartment is on the ground floor of their building is inversely proportional to their weight. 
Same rule applies to buildings with working elevators. 

I'm starting a paramedic program in the fall and all the schools I went to mentioned that they're upping their minimum weight lifting standards (in response to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care upping theirs) to 220lbs.  In the past, the ministry minimum was only around 190.  I was also told that the average weight of an individual transported by EMS has gone up to 230 pounds, though I don't know if this is true or not.

The population is getting larger. 

 
Warning: Necro-post! Don't like them? Don't read them!  :)

This is from today's news. I searched the topic before posting, rather than start a new one.

Toronto

Sep 26, 2016

Ambulance shortage leaves man in the street for over an hour with broken leg
http://www.680news.com/2016/09/26/exclusive-ambulance-shortage-leaves-man-in-street-for-over-an-hour-with-broken-leg/

Lucky it was a street job and not a fifth-floor walk-up!

If it takes that long to get a bariatric ambulance to a call 10 minutes away from Emergency Services HQ, ( that's without even using lights and siren ) I wonder what the response times are in Calgary, or other parts of Ontario? 

“That’s unfortunate,” said Commander Jennifer Shield, “And I acknowledge that must have been a very long time for him sitting out there in the middle of the intersection.”

Anyone familiar with Dufferin and Eglinton knows it is a major  intersection.

"...paramedics admit the average response time for a bariatric call is about one hour."

Bariatric is a new type of ambulance they were buying just before I retired.

But, from personal experience, there is nothing new about bariatric patients. I moved a lot of them on the Orion 2.

You could kneel the back door to street level, drag them in on a tarpaulin and lay them on the deck.

Not nice to witness, but it beat laying in the middle of an intersection for over an hour.







 

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Nice action shots taken today loading a bariatric patient  in Brooklyn. It shows the advantage of the Orion 2 kneeling ambulance in the pic above with easy loading from the air operated rear doors. No need for a ramp, or elevating the stretcher.
https://twitter.com/ToddMaisel/status/793195055532150785

What it does not show - and never does for reasons of confidentiality - is the job they must have had inside the house. May have also involved removal from an upstairs bedroom.
 
City of New York Firefighters & Paramedics rescue a large man. It does not end well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhdvIvVOvAM

Our 26' Orion 2 in reply #6 was best for jobs like that.

Use a tarp straight in via the kneeling back door and lay them on the deck. Skip the stretcher. Get a gurney at the hospital.
 
Maybe a new business opportunity for Jamie Davis towing? A new meaning to Heavy Rescue 401 (lbs)?
 
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