You may have read up on the (attempted) Slenderman murder. The case is a tragic one. Before answering, you should look up this case if you are not familiar. However, from an EMS point of view, this scenario gets interesting, ESPECIALLY if you are attempting to provide true field medicine rather than arriving on a fully equipped ambulance.
The trauma surgeon in this case said that "if the knife had gone the width a human hair further, she wouldn't have lived." (I believe it was the heart that was such as close call, but specific medical information seems scattered.) This suggests that you would NOT want her body moving around any more than it absolutely must because clearly, the structural integrity of blood flow mechanisms were damaged (what if it had been an artery nearly broken through, rather than the pericardial sac?). However, in cases of severe bleeding (this would have been immediately apparent) it may not always be worth the time to immobilize patients who (otherwise) have a low index of suspicion.
I can't clearly see the patient, but to my understanding there were so many stab wounds that a higher index of suspicion for CNS injury may have been warranted because, disturbingly, there was so much blood it would have been difficult to assess all of the wounds. However, since the girl was obviously suffering massive hemorrhage this would have been a little bit of a close call for a novice such as myself.
So my question is: Would you have taken the time to immobilize? Why or why not?
The question gets even hairy if we are in the wilderness. In real life, she dragged herself to the side of the road and was able to summon help from a passing cyclist. If, however, you had found here there, what would you do?
The question is two-fold: we have a real-world situation where one would have to consider the chances of oneself being attacked. If possible, I would render first aid while calling for help on a cellphone, but signal strength or describing the exact location or even the chance of being ambushed may have made this difficult. Disregarding this, would it be better to, after addressing any imminent external hemorrhage:
1.) Declare an "emergency" move, carry her to nearest populated area or chance for aid (obviously, the assumption is that we are strong enough to maintain some sort of a pace along the distance)
2.) Leave the victim where she is and flee for aid as quickly as possible, doing your best to remember the location.
In this case the victim was conscious but that was for from inevitable.
I hope I'm not wrong, but I think there may be enough factors here that it warrants some thinking through.
The trauma surgeon in this case said that "if the knife had gone the width a human hair further, she wouldn't have lived." (I believe it was the heart that was such as close call, but specific medical information seems scattered.) This suggests that you would NOT want her body moving around any more than it absolutely must because clearly, the structural integrity of blood flow mechanisms were damaged (what if it had been an artery nearly broken through, rather than the pericardial sac?). However, in cases of severe bleeding (this would have been immediately apparent) it may not always be worth the time to immobilize patients who (otherwise) have a low index of suspicion.
I can't clearly see the patient, but to my understanding there were so many stab wounds that a higher index of suspicion for CNS injury may have been warranted because, disturbingly, there was so much blood it would have been difficult to assess all of the wounds. However, since the girl was obviously suffering massive hemorrhage this would have been a little bit of a close call for a novice such as myself.
So my question is: Would you have taken the time to immobilize? Why or why not?
The question gets even hairy if we are in the wilderness. In real life, she dragged herself to the side of the road and was able to summon help from a passing cyclist. If, however, you had found here there, what would you do?
The question is two-fold: we have a real-world situation where one would have to consider the chances of oneself being attacked. If possible, I would render first aid while calling for help on a cellphone, but signal strength or describing the exact location or even the chance of being ambushed may have made this difficult. Disregarding this, would it be better to, after addressing any imminent external hemorrhage:
1.) Declare an "emergency" move, carry her to nearest populated area or chance for aid (obviously, the assumption is that we are strong enough to maintain some sort of a pace along the distance)
2.) Leave the victim where she is and flee for aid as quickly as possible, doing your best to remember the location.
In this case the victim was conscious but that was for from inevitable.
I hope I'm not wrong, but I think there may be enough factors here that it warrants some thinking through.