Good Samaritan's car destroyed

[Kiwiology]

I am not sure if UK services carry the KED; truth be told I do not remember ever seeing them in anything to do with the UK, but I would be quite surprised if they actually did not carry them but it is entirely plausible!

Remember too that while UK Paramedic is different than in US in quite a few areas, in others it is still a bit conservative and that each of the NHS Ambulance Trusts do some things slightly differently; e.g. some use a scoop or combi-carrier while others still use a long rigid board and head blocks.

JRCALC have a spinal clearance / non immobilisation thing but it hasn't been updated since 2006.

[Chief1C]

Not to get off topic, but I'm well experienced in difficult extrications. Not well schooled, it's hard to be well schooled when you're limited to resources. The auto industry changed before our eyes, and the fire service (rescue) was not prepared, or equipped for the change. You can Google this, Boron Steel and Vehicle Extrication. The UK's fire service has been twenty years advanced, since the 1970's. In the US, before tools like the Jaws, you had saws that made sparks, and hand tools; and more often than not, if there was entrapment, a wrecker service would be doing the extrication. HURST Jaws were the first hydraulic cutter and spreader systems, and all models stemmed from them, breaking away with better ideas. They work really well, and so do the competitor models, in fact of all emergency tools, these will almost be gaurenteed to outlast your trucks, etc, by 20-40 years. They're built solid and really hold up.

Until now. We had a wreck prolly two years ago; new car, ultra modern technology, electric, made of boron steel. Made to survive a crash, just not a violent one where the patient is severely injured and cannot be moved too much. Didn't remove the roof, but the B post had to go to get the driver out. Could not cut it. Brand new rescue tools, cutters clamped down, and stopped. Broke out the SawZall (Saws All).. Yeah, not anymore. Took four diamond bit blades to cut it. Now firefighters in the UK have been using a common tool in construction, it's a spark-less saw, the name escapes me, it cuts clean, and it cuts through Boron steel like a hot knife in butter. In fact, you cut an entire car in half in about 15min with the saw. There are blades for this steel for a common Reciprocating saw, and that's what everyone upgraded to. But the first time I went looking for how the hell to cut this stuff, I found a video of UK firefighters they cut a car, literally in half. It was the most amazing saw..

And that's what it looks like they used.

BoundTree UK sells Kendrick KODE II (the improved KED).

The Dual Saw.

[Bernhard]

When I first heard this story I laughed so hard.

"Poor woman, strange medical/technical/tactical response..." I thought.

Then I remembered some strange things I see with some of my fellow colleagues here. Even if we are allowed to clear C-spine in field by standards, the new EMTs and medics here still learn "c-spine control in any way". And some or even most of the young ones see this as the high wizardry of care, instead of using their brains. So it could have happened here as well with newly released medics.

Recently, a new EMT from my volly group (in german: "Rettungssanitäter", 540hrs edcuation) had to be wise enough to not follow our local training ("think!") but to secure every c-spine he finds to pass the state tests.

Especially new providers are so classroom trained on heavy polytrauma incidents that they often forget that the majority of our calls is the light stuff, And that modern cars are built to survive. Maybe we have a problem in education here, when training kicks in - it's good to know the ABCDE's in depth, but it is much more important to know WHEN to apply and/or adjust it to reality.

BTW, they probably cut with something like this:

(at 1:40 the interesting part starts).

PS: We needed 1,5 hrs to get this one out just yesterday night (collision between two trucks):