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To Whom It May Concern: Writing this letter for me is two fold. I was an EMT and Paramedic student when my life was thrust in a different direction all together. On the night of March 20, 2012 I was involved in an MVA when a semi-truck driver hit me on the driver's side of my truck at 35 mph. This left me unable to work in my field as I had a compound fracture of my left leg and a pretty severe head injury. After speaking with one of the responders and a friend of mine, I soon found that almost none of the equipment worked on me because of my size at the time. Although my life was spared by the people who responded and the care that I received it should be known that this happened. My friend told me that the C-Collars where to small even the "no-neck" size, and they tried using a towel with tape but because of the amount of blood this didn't work either. My friend also informed me that they had to have people ride in the back of the ambulance to hold traction on my leg, as well as hold C-spine manually. Given these factors I would like to work with someone to help develop a class of equipment that will fit everyone and not just be a one size fits all. While I have been working diligently on reducing my size and making myself more fit there are those that simply don't have the drive or the ability to do the same thing, along with that even when I do lose more weight I am sure that given my natural size there will be some equipment that still won't work on me. I am at a loss of who to write or who to let know about this so I have written this letter in hopes that it might reach the right people. I am not looking for compensation out of this I simply want to make sure that when a Paramedic responds they have the ability and equipment to handle every situation they might come across. Remembering that I have worked in various places myself where the population was different in sizes ranging from the smallest infant to people well over 600lbs, I want to work together with a manufacture or someone in the business of developing equipment used in life saving emergencies to ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. Given this letter is indirect to whomever might be able to assist in this I ask that if you find yourself wondering more about my story or would want to work on this feel free to email me at jlchernov1977@gmail.com, this is my personal email and I will respond to all who might ask. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and hopefully we can work together to make sure that all patients can be helped efficiently. Sincerely, Jacob Chernov, AZ EMT -Basic