Ever dropped a patient?

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SFguy

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Hi all. I am posting because I feel absolutely AWFUL about work today. Last call of the day, its a ~200-250 pound frequent flier w altered mental we take to dialysis every other day. I work in San Francisco, and its really hilly there and it was rainy today. Well, at the destination of her SNF, which is on a pretty steep hill (we had the return from dialysis), transporting the gurney from the street to the sidewalk, the gurney slipped, went perpindicualar to the street, and as a result, toppled over with her in it.

She hit the ground, I tried to stop the fall, I cut my hand on the gurney as a result. I immediately checked for head or neck injury and there was none. She didnt hit her head at all, luckily the pillow and rail took the brunt of the fall.

My partner and I, trying our best to remain calm, unbuckled her from the gurney, layed her on a sheet on the ground and then sheet lifted her back onto the gurney. We reassesed her and only saw a small bruise on her right arm and thats was it. I was very thorough in checking her for any other injuries. Finished the rest of the call like normal.

The husband was there and witnessed the incident. He was rightfully upset but not furious.

Reported incident to nurses who checked her out, and she was fine. Wrote up a report for our supervisor and the facility.

Thank god, the patient was not injured at all in a serious way, it was just scary as heck...

Well, I feel completely just TERRIBLE about the incident, as well as my partner. Have any of you guys ever had this happen or heard of anything like this? I feel awful. :sad:
 
Happens. AND you did the right thing by reporting it. At least she wasn't injured. It was a learning experience.
 
Luckily I have never dropped a patient like this. When I was a cop I was working an MCI accident with about 12 people injured...all minor thankfully.

Anyway, we had a crapload of ambulances show up and I went to assist one of the female EMTs with lifting a backboarded patient. As I grabbed the feet the female EMT lifted the head without communicating which caused me to rush my lift which was at an awkward angle not to mention the board was wet.

Needless to say the board slipped and I dropped the patient. Luckily it was only a few inches and not a full height drop.

I kept my mouth shut but after the call I had a discussion with her. Not only could she have injured the patient but she could have injured herself or me. She quit not long after that. According to her coworkers this wasn't the first time this had happened with her.
 
Never actually dropped anyone, came really close a couple of times.

Sounds like you handled it the right way.
 
I dont know the whole story but a friend of mine told me that her neighbor usually went by transport company to dialysis. One day it was raining and the emts were bringing her down her ramp....which was poorly made with no handrails.....and they slipped and went off the ramp. The patient hit her head on some big tree roots and later died that day due to a head injury. I was asking my friend about details and she was supposed to let me know more about it but she ended up dying in her sleep 2 days later herself due to flu complications! I never did get any more of the story.
 
I've had the hook that catches the stretcher on the way out, not catch. Patient dropped to the backstep. Scared the heck out of me thankfully they didn't go sideways. No harm was done just scared her.
 
We were taking a pt up a ramp in her wheelchair. I was at the feet making sure she didn't fall out. My partner was pushing.

We got on the porch and turned around to get the door open.

My partner I guess thought we were on A step and tipped the chair forward and the pt slipped out onto the ground.

She wasn't hurt. Just cold sitting on the ground. My partner then jumped back and started freaking out, screaming at me that I didn't tell her we weren't on a step.

When she finally pulled herself together, we put the patient back in the wheelchair, and took her into the house. The family was extremely upset and kicked us out, and wouldn't let us examine the patient.

We reported it and were ultimately suspended for a day.

I was at fault because I didn't make sure the or was seat belted into the chair.
 
Anjel1030 said:
My partner then jumped back and started freaking out, screaming at me that I didn't tell her we weren't on a step.
Click to expand...

Talk about instant reality check for relations with co-workers or partners.
 
"The pt was ok"

Not to be accusatory, but we have a population of practitioners who are trained to suspect hidden trauma who, when they drop someone, pronounce them "fine" on the spot. Company policies are also schizo on this; some say treat them like they fell out of a moving vehicle, others say don't make a big deal and no one will freak out.

I've been dropped at exercises, so I don't ride a litter or have vollies ride litters anymore unless it is lifted by skilled pro's and the aim is to teach the vollie what it feels like to be on it. Sandbags will do thanks once the loading and strapping are demonstrated.

Had nursing co-workers who, despite repeated warnings, would leave a patient unattended but strapped to an ambulance litter up in full extension. TWICE we had patients crash to the floor with the litter.

Came damned close to dropping a big guy once. Reinforced my perception that for me street EMS was for young athletic guys (and females).

OK lighten up:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsojy4_man-on-stretcher-rolls-into-lake_fun
 
Excellent decision to report it. Don't ever hide anything. I think it's far better to report on yourself than have someone else report on you.

Anyhow, I have "dropped"a patient once. Winter time we were loading the gurney and I didn't see a small patch of ice, which I managed to step on. I was at the foot end and the wheels were already up. I wiped out and slid under the gurney but somehow managed to hold it up. Fortunately the catch was on the hook, do I just ended up on my back with the gurney above me like I was bench pressing it. Good thing the patient was a little old lady that weighed all of 110 pounds.

I still think we half killed her with how scared she was.
 
I'm really surprised the SNF even took a person who had an unprotected fall from about 5 feet up (if the stretcher was fully extended and the pt was semi-fowlers).

Seems like an instant trip to local ED. Possible CT ect.
 
My company is blessed ( :glare: ) enough to have a bariatric stretcher withOUT a power lift for one of our BLS rigs, and of course a slew of bariatric dialysis patients who cannot walk. Or move.

Anyways I was working the BLS truck a few times and quickly discovered that the squeeze handle on the foot end that you pull when you lift up the stretcher to change the height.... sticks. Like, really badly. Like, my partner and I were lifting a 250-300lb patient (and me being barely any help because I am 1/3 of that, myself) and the f:censored:ing thing sticks and all of a sudden the stretcher won't lock into place and we are crashing towards the ground. We went all the way to the ground once (of course with facility empoyees standing around watching because god forbid any of them even think of offering to help), all the other times my partners and I had discussed it prior and knew to go very painstakingly slow with it and to test all the heights before letting go. I had several nasty bruises all up and down my forearms from catching the stretcher those days.... And the other fun part is the gears on the carriage aren't lubed enough, so when my poor partner is deadlifting the stretcher up into the ambulance, I'm pulling the carriage up hard as I can and it's going up slooo-oooo-oooowly....
 
I havnt dropped someone but have come too close for comfort a few times.

Kudos for reporting it. Always being honest and taking the outcome beats hiding or lying any day.

Being aware of your surroundings and communicating with your partner is so important.

One of our many policies to is never move the stretcher with it all the way up to prevent it being tippy.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018490/Cancer-patient-dies-dropped-head-paramedics.html

One of the reasons I hear basics give for not carrying a personal liability/malpractice policy is "basics can't really do anything that can cause much harm anyway".

Try not to feel too bad about what happened just realize that it is something that can happen to any EMT/medic. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often honestly. Learn from it and don't repeat the mistakes that led to it that's all you can do at this point.
 
Anjel1030 said:
We reported it and were ultimately suspended for a day.
Click to expand...

I don't see how this was helpful. This does nothing but incentivise providers to cover up such occurrences, or lie about how it happened.

A more effective approach would have been to have the crew create a presentation on lifting and moving patients, the importance of crew member communication, tactics on communicating with family, friends, and patients after an adverse event, and proper procedures for documenting and reporting such events.

Punishment is not the answer.

To the OP: you did the right thing. Good on you.
 
I havent dropped anyone as an EMT, but when I worked as a brand new CNA I did have an unfortunate incident.

I was wheeling a little old lady down a hall in a wheelchair that didnt have foot pegs, with her feet dangling. All of a sudden someone wheels another person out of a room right in front of us. I stopped, but the person in the wheelchair didnt stop. She slid forward out of the chair as I futilly reached for her to stop her momentum. It was like it happened in slow mo as I watched her topple forward just out of my reach and her head pretty much bounce off the floor.

There was no reason for me to report it, as the charge nurse happened to be walking down the hallway in the other direction and saw the whole thing. There was a big scene in the hallway with this poor confused old lady laying face down while we checked her out, and other CNAs looking at me with this 'how could you' look on their faces. She turned out to be relatively fine, aside from winding up with a pretty good shiner. She was already a hospice patient whose time on the planet was pretty much day by day at that point, and all I could think was this will be what does her in, and I'll be the CNA who killed a patient my first week on the job. As it turns out she lingered long enough for the shiner to fade before finally passing.
 
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Bite!

Back when we were allowed to transport combative pt.'s face-down on a backboard, I had a female pt. swivel her head over and bite my thumb. So what was my natural inclination? I let go and dropped the head of the backboard. I didn't feel too bad about it since she had been throwing full coffee cans at us only moments before, plus, you know, she bit me.
 
The only dropping situation I had was also at a dialysis center. We were about to transfer our patient to the dialysis bed, we lowered the gurney down one level, heard the locks engage and I always give it a shake to make sure its locked. Everything went fine but a few moments later, the gurney dropped one additional level on its own. The patient was extremely startled and I was shocked that this could happen. Turns out my company wasn't making sure the gurneys were lubed up every few months.
 
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