Ever Had a Fat Patient Break Your Back?

[Coach Hohman]

Broken? No. I messed up my back pretty bad though on a 500 pound woman. Had help on four corners and my partners hand slipped off the bar and the weight shifted. I tried to counter it with my own body weight and somewhere in there the point of torque became my low back. Four months of chiropractic and I'm as good as new.

[Bunnymedic]

not broken, thank god, but I have pulled a muscle (or torn it, not sure, but it hurt like the dickens for several weeks). it wasn't so much the weight of the patient (he was only about 200 lbs) but the surprise drop of the stretcher compliments of my partner who, without warning, pulled the handle. thank god I was holding on to the stretcher, or the patient would've fallen... grr.. my partner was always a jerk like that to me. :evil: :evil: but I'm good now!

[firespec35]

Broken? No. I messed up my back pretty bad though on a 500 pound woman. Had help on four corners and my partners hand slipped off the bar and the weight shifted. I tried to counter it with my own body weight and somewhere in there the point of torque became my low back. Four months of chiropractic and I'm as good as new.

Sounds about like the same deal as when my dad broke his

[akflightmedic]

Sounds about like the same deal as when my dad broke his

Which is why I have the rule MA 1.....My Ass 1st!

When transporting any heavy patient it is necessary to plan accordingly. Ask the patients weight, ask what kind of conditions or obstacles at the house, plan for it! Ask for backup always.

There is no excuse to ever lift an obese patient with inadequate personel on an interfacility run, especially when delivering them home. You have all the time in the world to wait on the proper resources despite what your employer or partner may try to convince you otherwise. If you do not feel comfortable, do not stray from what you feel.

You also have to anticipate all the what ifs. If you know going up stairs is a possibility, you have to think of what action you are going to take should it go bad. Always plan for the worst!

If I have a severly obese patient, I have to consider what if my partner drops their load? Answer is simple, I too will drop my load as I know my personal limits. I know I can not compensate for loss of my partners effort with my body mechanics. This is a surefire way to get permanently disabled. Sorry the patient falls, but again it is my ass first. Secondly, you should of never been in that situation as again you should know your limits and have called and waited for adequate assistance.

I will state that in an emergency situation, I have been foolish and lifted without proper help but it truly was life or death. I did consider the ramifications of my decision and decided I could live with my choice, whatever the outcome. However, on routine calls there is NO excuse.

[Coach Hohman]

Which is why I have the rule MA 1.....My Ass 1st!

When transporting any heavy patient it is necessary to plan accordingly. Ask the patients weight, ask what kind of conditions or obstacles at the house, plan for it! Ask for backup always.

There is no excuse to ever lift an obese patient with inadequate personel on an interfacility run, especially when delivering them home. You have all the time in the world to wait on the proper resources despite what your employer or partner may try to convince you otherwise. If you do not feel comfortable, do not stray from what you feel.

You also have to anticipate all the what ifs. If you know going up stairs is a possibility, you have to think of what action you are going to take should it go bad. Always plan for the worst!

If I have a severly obese patient, I have to consider what if my partner drops their load? Answer is simple, I too will drop my load as I know my personal limits. I know I can not compensate for loss of my partners effort with my body mechanics. This is a surefire way to get permanently disabled. Sorry the patient falls, but again it is my ass first. Secondly, you should of never been in that situation as again you should know your limits and have called and waited for adequate assistance.

I will state that in an emergency situation, I have been foolish and lifted without proper help but it truly was life or death. I did consider the ramifications of my decision and decided I could live with my choice, whatever the outcome. However, on routine calls there is NO excuse.

AK, I agree with you 100%. Of course that is completley in retrospect. I'm a big guy and used to power lift so I had this mentality that I was young, big, and strong. There was no way I could get hurt lifting. Pure stupidity that could have injured my partner or the patient (never considered the patient at the time). it was definately a learning experience. This call was in a volunteer fire area at noon, so we had one guy show up to help. In retrospect we should have called for another department for patient safety. It's one of those things where you learn from experience. Luckily t wasn't any worse than it was, but it was enough to learn from it.

[MedicAR]

Oddly enough, we had a large patient yesterday!

Rollover MVC, "entrapped" (don't get me started) in the middle of nowhere. I work for a service that covers a large rural area as well as a small city (90,000 give or take in the city). Anyway, we arrive on scene to find the local first responders pretty much just standing around. They tell us they have the patient out and on a backboard. Okay. Fine. "Where is he?" "In the field." Oooookay......weird. I walk around the overturned vehicle to find one of the larget patients I've ever encountered. My next question is what about a backboard? I can't see any straps holding him on, nor is there a c-collar. As fate would have it, the patient is so large, that he completely covers the LBB! He hangs off of all four sides.

We call for a second rural department which angers the first responders' chief. Not that I care, I can't move the guy with two 70 year old firefighters, an 18 skinny year old kid and my partner. The other department was on the way anyhow, and I knew them and the three they had on board are some strong guys. By now, the county officer and state trooper are offering assistance too.......assistance from law enforcement! Another sign of the impending apocolypse....

Long story short, we finally got the patient loaded and on the way to the hospital, we're giving report and letting them know we'll need help when the patient tells me.....get this....he weighs 300 lbs! :roll:

His driver's license says 250 :bs:

I put him at a minimum of 450, an that's being nice. We did manage to move him without injuring anyone. My back hurts today, but it has to be psychsomatic. We wound up with enough help that no one had to strain at all. In fact my back hurts more as I write this and relive the whole thing!

[amraam840]

Gotta love those entrapped-morbid-obese, upside down in a rollover, hanging from the seatbelt and stuck under the steering wheel, swearing "I washn't Driiiving Shir!"... I notice too, that there's always something like the aforementioned ghetto stairs, or a tight hallway, or some obstacle or other, to deal with when you've got a big pt. How come it can never never never be a straight beeline from pt's location to back of bus?

I have one in my district that truly puts Stryker's 700# limit to the test. Picture that scene of "I Now Pronounce You: Chuck & Larry", you know.. We're lucky enough to have the power-pro cots (thanks workmans comp), and we drain two batteries per run when this pt's involved. We always always call mutual aid in such a case...

I've never broken my back but came close on a transport to an optomatrist's office where my pt absoultly had to be in "the chair" and there was no lift assist availible. Next time I'm calling the local FD for assist if this facility won't have a team availible. I try to be smart and lift properly but that sometimes results in a blow-out of the crotch of my duty pants and a good deal of embarassment at the ED upon arrival. And sometimes it's a hard call if the pt at hand is in a condition that I can afford to wait for lift assist.

Bottom line..... Situation Dictates Procedure.

[firespec35]

We didn't hurt ourselves but I had this one, she was about 450-500 and she needed to go to the doctor's. Of course we had the ghetto stairs involved. She was able to walk good enough so we had her walk to the cot on the sidewalk, (This was in the days of 2 man stretchers), carefully wheeled her to the truck and lifted her in. My partnet was great. I never got injured lifting no matter how much we took. Anyways we were waiting in the doctors office when one of the front wheels collapsed. So we end up balancing her on 3 wheels to finish the call. I'm pretty sure we both got lucky on that one.

[maxsimon]

No harm occurred.Only overwhelmed by the sight of the 285kg(Pound?)patient.He was able to walk for a few steps,so could enter and leave the ambulance by own means.Would never try to pick him up even with quadruple help.Need a small crane.

[MedicAR]

No harm occurred.Only overwhelmed by the sight of the 285kg(Pound?)patient.He was able to walk for a few steps,so could enter and leave the ambulance by own means.Would never try to pick him up even with quadruple help.Need a small crane.

Roughly 627 pounds.