Stretcher with PT falls from moving ambulance

[bstone]

How in the world does something like this happen?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bb5_1197533794

And the fact that it was caught on the news cameras? Oh my.

Not latched? Back doors not closed? Yikes. Poor injured patient!

 

[firecoins]

Thank God I wasn't the EMT....or the patient.

 

[firetender]

Of course it happens. Everything happens!

I especially liked the numbnuts medics who (in another clip) dropped the pt. and then, with the stretcher fully extended and locked, tried to lift him and the stretcher upright. Injury upon injury upon injury.


In this business, it's not so much about the mistakes as it is about the recovery from them.

 

[BossyCow]

In this business, it's not so much about the mistakes as it is about the recovery from them.

Truer words were never spoken!

 

[emtangie850]

Unfortunately this happened within our department. Thank gosh we knew the patient and they really didn't care. We at one point (when I first joined) had an ambulance captain who didn't really put all he could into our dept. He skipped inventory, didn't get our tools/equipment serviced and such... Well our stretcher fell into this... I happened to be a CFR at the time and we were having stretcher troubles and it wouldn't lock properly.. We ended up having to call another ambulance in to transport... Talk about embarrassing! :blush:

Come to find out there was like 5 different screws/bolts missing that needed to be replaced! (oh btw that captain is gone now!)

-Angela

 

[Flight-LP]

Unfortunately this happened within our department. Thank gosh we knew the patient and they really didn't care. We at one point (when I first joined) had an ambulance captain who didn't really put all he could into our dept. He skipped inventory, didn't get our tools/equipment serviced and such... Well our stretcher fell into this... I happened to be a CFR at the time and we were having stretcher troubles and it wouldn't lock properly.. We ended up having to call another ambulance in to transport... Talk about embarrassing! :blush:

Come to find out there was like 5 different screws/bolts missing that needed to be replaced! (oh btw that captain is gone now!)

-Angela

If you don't mind me asking, how much did your agency get sued for due to gross negligence???????

It's great that the Captain is gone and all, but EVERYONE who knew about that issue and failed to take action should also be history. Every single crew that operated on that truck should have immediately taken it out of service until repaired. Sorry, but there is no excuse for what you described...........

The sad part is that the emotion described was embarrassment, instead of concern for the poor patient that had to endure your broke arse equipment!

Absolutely horrible!

 

[medicdan]

The clip is humorous. Can anyone identify where that happened (country)?

Strangely enough, the opposite happened to me yesterday. My partner and I couldn't get the stretcher latch release to unlock-- thus I couldn't get my patient out of the ambulance. This wasn't a maintenance problem-- it was a fairly new latch and stretcher, the thing just locked up! I'm lucky the patient wasn't so urgent, and was laughing with us, but I had no idea what to do. He had a leg injury (possible break), so we couldn't ask him to walk out...

 

[Flight-LP]

The clip is humorous. Can anyone identify where that happened (country)?

Ankara, the Capital of Turkey.................

 

[jakobsmommy2004]

Wtf!

Thats funny but not funny if you know what i mean lol

 

[emtangie850]

We didn't know it had any issues until that call... I was a CFR at the time so I didn't ride on the rig an awful lot. I was mostly on our rescue truck.

Fortunately, we didn't get sued... The patient was a member of our department.

But your right there was no excuse for the other medics/drivers.
-Angela

 

[Anomalous]

In this business, it's not so much about the mistakes as it is about the recovery from them.

Correcto. If you drop them, pick them up. If you injure them, patch them up. Then, make sure you document the whole thing.

 

[Jon]

One of the things I try to teach new EMT's is HOW the strecher lock works. With a basic mechanical knowledge, you can get a latch to lock or unlock when it is not quite functioning correctly.