City Deploys Bigger Ambulances to Handle Larger Customers

[IGBT]

Text


LAS VEGAS (AP) -- An ambulance company has responded to oversize needs in southern Nevada by providing an ambulance equipped to handle patients weighing 500 pounds or more.

?We're getting more and more requests to transport larger patients every day,'' said Roy Carroll, operations manager at American Medical Response, one of two companies with Clark County Fire Department contracts to provide medical transport in and around Las Vegas.

Crews have called 75 times in the last six months for additional manpower to handle morbidly obese patients, said Chris Piper, a western regional spokesman for Greenwood, Colo.-based AMR. He said the largest patients weighed more than 500 pounds.

Carroll, in Las Vegas, called handling large patients difficult and unsafe for patients, paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

?Not only does this person not fit, there's a chance he or she could fall,'' Carroll said. ?Our job is to get that patient to where they need to be safely and in a dignified manner. Traditional ambulances can't do that.''

The company recently put into service a $250,000 bariatric ambulance, which looks like its other 80 ambulances, but is extra-wide and has a larger gurney, a winch and ramps capable of loading up to 1,600 pounds.

 

[PCMarine]

1,600 pounds... dang

 

[Zenmervolt]

Somehow I don't think it's all that "dignified" if the person is so fat that the paramedics need a winch to get him into the ambulance... 😛

ZV

 

[K1052]

When you have to be winched aboard an ambulance, perhaps it it time to consider dieting.

 

[waggy]

im really shocked there are so many that they have to order a special ambulance for it.

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: K1052
When you have to be winched aboard an ambulance, perhaps it it time to consider dying.

FIXED

 

[911paramedic]

Well, that's my old stomping grounds as a paramedic. If there was a patient that large you had to take the brackets on the floor off (the ones that secure the gurney) and call the supervisors for the "huge" carrying mat. Once they show up you ALL carry the patient in and put them on the floor of the ambulance, the supervisor meets you at the hospital for the off-loading and gives you back your parts + gurney.

 

[fitzov]

250K? I wish I could get a contract to build those suckers.

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic
Well, that's my old stomping grounds as a paramedic. If there was a patient that large you had to take the brackets on the floor off (the ones that secure the gurney) and call the supervisors for the "huge" carrying mat. Once they show up you ALL carry the patient in and put them on the floor of the ambulance, the supervisor meets you at the hospital for the off-loading and gives you back your parts + gurney.

..the new "heavy lift" vehicles", are they dual rear axle or single??

 

[vi edit]

There was a patient at my wife's hospital that was so big that the only place in town that could perform a CT Scan on her was the City Zoo. :Q

 

[Randum]

what in the world is going on!?

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Randum
what in the world is going on!?

..all the fast food and tacho bell has created a new growth industry of "heavy lift" ambulances. :laugh:

 

[Baked]

We're evolving into fat asses so the Aliens can come and eat us.

 

[Azraele]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
There was a patient at my wife's hospital that was so big that the only place in town that could perform a CT Scan on her was the City Zoo. :Q

Woah. :Q

 

[Shame]

Wouldn't a flat bed truck with some tow straps be cheaper?

 

[JDrake]

Hahahaha

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
There was a patient at my wife's hospital that was so big that the only place in town that could perform a CT Scan on her was the City Zoo. :Q

*HOW* do you go and make THAT phone call?

"Hi, I'm xxx from GBMC, and we were wondering... Uh, we have a slightly overweight patient, do you have a CT scanner designed for elephants that we could borrow the use of for like, 20 minutes?"

 

[Pocatello]

As my parents would say "Only in America"

 

[GoingUp]

Personally I think they should just let those fat bastards die. Theyre a complete drain on our economy and health care system.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Somehow I don't think it's all that "dignified" if the person is so fat that the paramedics need a winch to get him into the ambulance... 😛

ZV

Heh, that was the first thought I had.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
Personally I think they should just let those fat bastards die. Theyre a complete drain on our economy and health care system.

Exactly, unless you're fat because of some horrible disorder (and I mean like a disorder where your body unconditionally increases in size, don't give me that depression eating disorder sh!t), once you can't fit in an ambulance anymore, its time you croak.

 

[FirNaTine]

One of the stations I work out of has list of patients that require additional assistance. The list is several pages long and some entries suggest minimum of eight personnel. There are a lot more people out there than most peolpe think like this. Unfortunately most of them are in poor health and require frequent transport.