Pediatric transport in a CRS.

[prowlernfo]

Does anyone out there have experience transporting a pediatric patient in a CRS in the ambulance? How did you secure the seat in the ambulance? Thanks in advance.

 

[JPINFV]

Child restraint system?

The way I've always set up the car seat (granted, these were all prearranged) was to put the back of the gurney up and move the seatbelts so one could act like a shoulder belt and one could act like a lap belt. This seemed to work well regardless of utilizing the seat as a booster seat (in which case the belt went over the child/seat) or as a car seat (with the belts securing the car seat to the gurney).

 

[Sassafras]

It depends on the seat. Forward facing raise the head to as high as it can go. Put the seatbelt where indicated. Should only take one at that point since most work like a latch system.

Rear facing a little trickier but still doable. Both seat types will face the back window, but with an actual rear facing seat it may take two straps to stabalize it. Each gives opposite tension. Just remember, properly installed carseats are not able to be shifted more than an inch in any direction. If you can accomplish that, you are good.

 

[prowlernfo]

Thanks

Thank-you both for the responses. I do appreciate it.

Jeff

 

[exodus]

Airway or CPR seat? Those work very well...

 

[abckidsmom]

Just wanted to specify:

If you are using a convertible car seat on the stretcher, you need to put a seat belt through both the forward facing belt path (in the back of the seat), AND the rear facing belt path (under the kid's butt).

If you put a convertible seat on the captain's chair, make sure you put the seat belt through the forward facing belt path of the car seat.

Infant bucket seats really should not be installed without a base in a position that the vehicle seat (captain's chair or stretcher) is rear-facing to the forward path of the ambulance. This is a little confusing to verbalize, but the hooks that are designed to receive the seatbelt on those seats will not hold in a collision if the tension is not applied in the "right" way like in a car. The seat belt will just slide away from the carseat.

If all you have is an infant bucket with no base, just be really aware that you're doing something that's very much not within the design of the seat. Sometimes people use 2 seat belts on that approach too, but it's really not designed that way.

Good for you, caring about properly tranporting kids! The back of an ambulance is one of the worst places to be in an accident, I'm pretty thankful that loaded ambulance crashes are so uncommon.

 

[prowlernfo]

Thanks

Excellent advice all, thanks again for increasing my knowledge base.

 

[18G]

I secure an infants car seat on the stretcher.... basically the same as in a car. Place the seatbelt through the appropriate opening on the car seat.

The buckle of the stretcher strap gets in the way if you try to use the base and doesn't allow the car seat to secure in.... just FYI.

 

[abckidsmom]

I secure an infants car seat on the stretcher.... basically the same as in a car. Place the seatbelt through the appropriate opening on the car seat.

The buckle of the stretcher strap gets in the way if you try to use the base and doesn't allow the car seat to secure in.... just FYI.

It's really painful, but the way to get the base installed is to move the chest seatbelt to the middle straps spot, then cinch the female end of the seatbelt all the way down and thread the male end all the way through the base.

With the buckles in a similar position as in a car, the base will install and the seat will click into it.

An infant seat is not safely installed if it's a baseless, seatbelt installation without the foot end of the seat against a vehicle seat and the seat rear facing to the forward motion of the vehicle.

Hope that helps!

 

[18G]

Makes sense... Next time ill have to work with it a bit more. Im big on kids being properly secured but I havent had luck with getting the base secured due to the buckles.