That sounds great when you don’t think about it much, but:
Who is going to put the fat folks on that cot?. Who is going to roll that cot out of the house down the steps and down the stairs? The cot is 10 inch’s wider than normal.
That is fine if the door is 10 inches wider than normal and the stairs or front steps or even the handicapped ramp are 10 inch’s wider than normal.
No ambulance crew of 3 people 2 of them maybe women, is going to be able to handle a 500 lb person.They are still going to need manpower.Still have to roll that fat person over put a slide canvas or some other pad under them to skid them onto that stretcher.A sheet won’t stand up to that kind of weight.Back breaking work yes and it has to be coordinated.
Probably a third of patients are obese, but not morbidly obese, this ambulance is not going to get that many morbidly obese patients.Perhas they will use it as a special unit to cover the whole county.
The usual procedure is to call an engine company or truck for manpower. They will still have to do this. Then wrap them in a Salvage Cover or canvas tote for fat folks and physically carry them out. More than likely this will still have to be done until they get the patient to the front yard.With the really big folks we usually leave the stretcher with the Fire Department and carry the patient in the floor.Then have the Fire Department follow us to the hospital to help unload.
When these guys get to the hspital they will still need additional help to get the obese people off the Stretcher.
We get this about 2 times a year not enough to put that kind of resources into a special ambulance.But if they use it as a special unit , for the whole county it could be useful I suppose.
no bulky firemen in the hospital...
——out of the house down the steps ——
I regularly visited a work place where Big Chris worked. He was young, 26 or so, and weighed at least 450. His hero’s were professional wrestlers.
He lived in his mother’s basement. One Sunday night he went to bed and never woke up. The problem was getting up the stairs. The door and stairs were too narrow for the strecher and it was a real bad problem