Handling Bariatric (Morbidly Obese) Patients

[Richard B the EMT]

Yipes! That sucks, big time!

[KIWI]

I just did some weight conversions ... from pounds to kilos ... and strewth we consider a 200 - 250 kg patient huge ... and that don't even get close to the ones yous are talking about!!!

um some of those weight conversions come out heavier than my er HORSE!!!!

[trainstatdotcom]

Umm.... we once had to use a ladder truck and a sawzall to get the patient out. We used a forklift from a local business to load from the ladder truck to the back of the rig and then had it drive to the local ER to unload the patient. a few hours later and we were back in service...

[Eric]

we had this happing to day bariatric patient we dont have the truck nor man/women power so what we do tell the RN to call the other ambu place they have the truck plus let them hurt there back'

[Timmy]

Well I'd call the paramedics and let them deal with it; once they arrive I'd run around the corner and laugh at this poor pts misfortune and the facial expression the medics are giving each other... Joking...

This actually happened to us last year at a speed boat racing event. An extremely over weight patient was C/O chest pain, medics stabilised her, our stretchers can only hold about 160kg, patient was well over this. We ended up getting a wheelie thingo’s they use to cart around there massive speed boat engines in the pits, the hospital was about a 5 min walk from our event, so we wheeled her to ED. Although extremely embarrassing for the patient it worked quiet well and probly saved her life!

[Dustdevil]

Although extremely embarrassing for the patient it worked quiet well and probly saved her life!

Me thinks they should be used to embarrassment by now.

[Timmy]

Awwwww don’t me so mean! They have a problem…

[Chrisclark]

My grandmother is one of them. I can assure you that it is her own damn fault. She lays in bed all day and convinces different people to bring her fast food and Bacon.

I can understand being overweight, but morbidly obese, absolutely not.

[MeekoBB]

I wish our company had something like that because I took a call for a transfer from one facility to another and we had the staff measure the pt and all the necessary doorways atboth places...pt was 50"wide and doorways were about 40". Pt was 600lbs. :shock:

I'm glad I was off the road for that one

[Jess]

My grandmother is one of them. I can assure you that it is her own damn fault. She lays in bed all day and convinces different people to bring her fast food and Bacon.

I can understand being overweight, but morbidly obese, absolutely not.

Just a common misconception though is its NOT ALWAYS the pts fault for the weight. Thyroid problems, polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and some medications can play a role in obesity. I watched a show on Discovery Health Channel the other day about a 30 yr old woman that went from 140 pounds to 280 pounds in a year! She kept going to many different doctors because she knew something was wrong, shockingly they never could find anything wrong with her until her weight got way out of control. Sad part is the common stereotype of obese people is over eating and its not always true. Great topic by the way