Transporting Infants...

How do you transport infants to the hospital?

  • In parent's arms

    Votes: 7 23.3%

  • In a car seat

    Votes: 10 33.3%

  • Using Pedi-mate or something similar

    Votes: 9 30.0%

  • As best we can on the cot

    Votes: 1 3.3%

  • Other...please describe.

    Votes: 3 10.0%
  • Total voters
    30
ffemt8978

ffemt8978

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How does your agency transport infants to the hospital?
 
cant do the "pt in moms arms" thing anymore. has to be in an approved carseat device. the pedimate was the best we came up with. small and easily storable. easy to use and reasonably priced.
 
we have pedi-mates in all 3 squads but our newest has the childseat in the airway seat.
 
We too have the pedi mate in each truck. Liability wise, any service that does not carry at least a car seat is asking for litigation. even f you use the one that they were in if involved in MVC. (It could be damaged/ or malfunction)

R/r 911
 
Depends for us. We have the car seat built into our captains chair, but that isn't used by many very often. If the kid can sit up on its own, then I always try to put them in it. But most often the mom holds the kid. We transported a 6 month old not to long ago with the mom on the stretcher, breast feeding.
 
Mostly we transport kids in ambulances :P but being serious, we us the mom if the child is under about 3 due to our trucks being incompatable with child seats(at least the older trucks). We have child seats built into our captains chair, and if need be we have pedi-boards on the truck that we can secure them with. If they are big enough to be on the cot and have both straps hold them, then on the cot they go.
 
In mother's arms is NOT good... it is EVIL. I WILL have a problem with anyone who does that at my service. Every rig either has a pedi-mate or an inflatable child safety seat.

The inflatable seat can be secured to the Strecher or the Captians' Chair, depending on if it is the Parent or baby who is sick.

I once did a transport for a flight team with Mom, Dad and a newborn. The flight team had a papoose restraint harness thing for the baby and Mom... that seemed to work.

Seriously... a kid in Mom's arms becomes a projectile when you are in a collision.
 
As of a few months ago my service still transports with a ped in the mothers arms. It's not about money, as we have the newest and latest equipment, and purchase new equipment without hesitation, but I'm not sure anyone has ever really brought it up.
 
We have the integrated child restraint in the captains chair, or I have strapped the child's car seat to the cot. We never, never, never transport a child in mom's/dad's arms.
 
How we transport infants is dependent on the scanario we find ourselves in. If the infant is screamin' like a banshee but no real SERIOUS injury involving head/neck/back then we'll have the care giver (mother, father, babysitter, whatever) hold the child on their lap and strap the caregiver in. If spinal injury is suspected and the child is out of their car seat we'll board them if we can and if the child is NOT out of the car seat we'll just take the whole car seat and strap it into one of our seats. We don't have ONE single way to transport, it's scanario specific.
 
I wonder why EMS allows "parents to hold infants" ? We preach about the safety and mechanical effect that "no one could safely hold a child during an impact" and then we allow it ? Does the service not realize the liability ?

Just because it has AMBULANCE on the side does not remove the dangers.

Sorry, this is a burr for me. Eleven years ago, I did a study of "Use of car seats in emergency services" and found out most states exempted Police, Fire Departments, and yes even EMS from having children protected. What hypocrisy !

There is no reason for EMS not to have some form of child carrier device .... period. I don't care if the kid is screaming or fighting..I strap them down and place them where they are safe... they are my responsibility and liability. If injury should occur, it is going to go against me.. I much rather deal with a little tears and screams .. smiling an knowing they will be okay. Personally, I much rather hear the screams than the deafness of those unrestrained ones that had been tossed and projected around..

C'mon folks.. we strap and secure our adult patients for a reason... the same should be true for children.

R/r 911
 
I just refuse

I won't transport a child that can not be restrained on the litter. I work for a non-emergency transport company that is lucky to have a backboard on the truck much less a pedi-mate. So I just refuse to transport.
 
Sad that it must come to that, but sometimes we need to look at what is best for ourselves...
 
Good post. As a matter of fact, I just recently passed my certification to install child restraint systems in cars. The 40+ hour course had a good deal of crash dynamics and I actually learned a lot specifically in children and related injuries. So, obviously, one of my first questions was how do you properly secure a child restraint in an ambulance. The answer? Nobody knows! The truth is that it is so unsafe no matter how you do it that nobody will give a reccomendation. Every combination is a disaster in collision. However, we must transport so thats why there is nothing that says "don't" do it. It is just not spoken of. With that said, god forbid the ambulance was ever struck by a motor vehicle (we know our driving wouldn't be to blame) it would be devastating to the child in a proper restraint, let alone out of one. Knowing what I know now about just how lethal a collision can be to a child, I plan to strap the kid down as best I possibly can in the restraint on the cot. Although this is still very dangerous, it is the least of all evils.
 
Ever try to secure a 2 year old who is not hurt (bad) to a pedi-board? Yeah right! Better to leave them out then try to make them stay and hurt themselves more....
 
Ridryder911 said:
I wonder why EMS allows "parents to hold infants" ? We preach about the safety and mechanical effect that "no one could safely hold a child during an impact" and then we allow it ? Does the service not realize the liability ?

Just because it has AMBULANCE on the side does not remove the dangers.

Sorry, this is a burr for me. Eleven years ago, I did a study of "Use of car seats in emergency services" and found out most states exempted Police, Fire Departments, and yes even EMS from having children protected. What hypocrisy !

There is no reason for EMS not to have some form of child carrier device .... period. I don't care if the kid is screaming or fighting..I strap them down and place them where they are safe... they are my responsibility and liability. If injury should occur, it is going to go against me.. I much rather deal with a little tears and screams .. smiling an knowing they will be okay. Personally, I much rather hear the screams than the deafness of those unrestrained ones that had been tossed and projected around..

C'mon folks.. we strap and secure our adult patients for a reason... the same should be true for children.

R/r 911
Click to expand...

This is the reason I started this post, because we just got our Pedi-Mates on our ambulances after trying for almost a year. Some people just didn't see the need for them, and said that the parents could hold the child to keep it calm.
 
ffemt8978 & Rid-

I also have done the CPS course. Nothing I hate worse than seeing Mom with the baby on her lap. I wish we could make then get out, bench press 300lbs- (10lb baby x 30 mph) then let them rethink the situation.
I think ambulances are lumped in with the school bus, which we are taught is designed to be safe without restraints. Okay.....:rolleyes:
 
islandgal said:
ffemt8978 & Rid-

I also have done the CPS course. Nothing I hate worse than seeing Mom with the baby on her lap. I wish we could make then get out, bench press 300lbs- (10lb baby x 30 mph) then let them rethink the situation.
I think ambulances are lumped in with the school bus, which we are taught is designed to be safe without restraints. Okay.....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Your math is a wee bit off:

Force=Mass x Acceleration x Acceleration

where acceleration is the change in speed over time. Using your 10lb baby, at 30mph with a ONE second deceleration time (for ease of calculation), this is what you get (the mph has been converted to fps)
10 x 44 x 44 = 19,360 ft-lbs of force!!!

I don't know about you, but I can't hold a baby in that situation.
 
I stand corrected- thanks. Still same point though- not many people are that strong!!!!
 
islandgal said:
ffemt8978 & Rid-

I also have done the CPS course. Nothing I hate worse than seeing Mom with the baby on her lap. I wish we could make then get out, bench press 300lbs- (10lb baby x 30 mph) then let them rethink the situation.
I think ambulances are lumped in with the school bus, which we are taught is designed to be safe without restraints. Okay.....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Yep.

Why is it that our co-workers were up in arms when Brittney Spears did it, but we do it every day?
 
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