What equipment and procedures do you have in place to move/transport morbidly obese patients? Please post your responses in the comments section below.
Back in 1975, when I came on the job, my father handed me a pocket manual that he carried as an officer and chief. I think it was from California and had many “nuggets” that could be used if you got into a bind on a run. How to shut off meters, lock out elevators, and on and on. One “nugget” was that if you went on a run that centered around an extremely large civilian stuck in a tub, how to use sheets to extricate him or her.
Occasionally we encounter extremely obese individuals. I have heard accounts of firefighters that have cut open exterior walls to remove large victims to get them to the hospital for additional treatment. We have sent extra units to assist first responders in such instances. How do you handle obese victims? —John “Skip” Coleman retired as assistant chief from the Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue. He is a technical editor of Fire Engineering; a member of the FDIC Educational Advisory Board; and author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997), Managing Major Fires (Fire Engineering, 2000), and Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer, Second Edition (Fire Engineering, 2008).
