Ever Forget Your Stretcher???

Has anyone intentionally left a stretcher?

I was once in a weird situation in which bringing the stretcher was not the most optimal situation. As department policy (and NJ state law), we transport and service dog upon request of patient. This particular dog happened to be a Saint Bernard and was quite large. Getting the dog into the back of our truck, became an almost impossible task. Even more of impossible task was transporting the patient without the dog.

In the end the decision we made was to remove the stretcher and put the dog on the floor. Patient was transported on a backboard secured to the bench seat. Thankfully, this was possible, having an ambulance equipped to do so.


On a side note, a situation did occur with a different crew in which the stretcher was left behind at the landing zone of patient taken out by helicopter.
 
This picture made it rounds last night on the facebookz of many of my friends... at a Boston hospital last night.
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The stretcher apparently sat there for 6-7 hours before being recovered.
 
One more reason I wish I didn't get transferred out of Boston. Hmmm who uses strykers. I suppose in Boston it could be someone from out of town too...
 
i wathced a crew head out one day of the bay with their cot hanging by cot catch out back door..they had cleaned back out earlier and left it sitting out just hung by the catch..they both walked right by it..doors open and hanging out without putting it in...and took off..i got em sstopped by time they got to end of driveway by hollering on the radio..took me a minute to spit it out cause i was laughing so hard..thing was going from side to side and they were flying out on emergency call..denctly long driveway we have so they had some decent speed
 
Forgot the cot sort of

Guys I know didn't forget the cot just forgot to load it. The catch on the cot was on the hook the guys took off for a call when they rounded a corner in the parking lot the cot passed them.

Whoops
 
When I was at Harborview for my EMT clinicals, one of the ambulance crews forgot their stretcher in the ER and had ran a call without it. I didn't understand how it could happen as its such a large piece of equipment but I guess its more common than I thought.

That poor EMT was sweating bullets waiting for his supervisor. I don't know what became of it but I do know he was scared of being fired as he was on probation.
 
one time a crew left their stretcher at the hospital and totally didn't notice somehow. our supervisor got a call from a FF who just delivered a PT being informed of it and he told the guys to do a rig check to see what was missing and they still couldn't figure it out. hilarious
 
I don't understand how you forget the cot, but I guess we have SOGs in place to prevent us from doing that as much as possible. At the hospital, the driver is responsible for putting the truck back together so it's always known who's in charge of the cot there. Also, since we're usually on a three man crew, the guy in the back will notice if the cot is missing...

Even when just washing out the truck though, I would find it very hard to forget that the stretcher is out of the truck!
 
We had a crew on a MVC, boarded and loaded the patient. The EMT got up front to drive and continued to the hospital. Upon arrival at the ER, she walked to the back of the truck, opened the rear doors and to her horror the patient was on the stretcher but no medic. They weren't far from the ER, thus dispatch didn't get her on the radio and the medic arrived shortly after as FD gave him a ride on the engine. It didn't go over well when they contacted the supervisor.
 
I've heard such horror stories myself about that happening. Heard of someone going to a T/C some 20 miles out from the station with the gurney left comfortably behind in the app. bay with the cavi wipes still on top:blink:. I hope to avoid that from ever happening to me. I guess that's what bench seats and scoops/flats/backboards are for...........
 
I don't remember the outcome but I do know that EMT no longer is employed with us
 
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