I live in an apartment. If I were to require an ambulance and had to be moved by stretcher, how would they fit me in the lift? It doesn’t fit a person horizontally. Do they put the stretcher in vertically?
If the stretcher doesn’t fit in the elevator, they’d likely take you down on the stairs.
I worked in a hotel with a very small elevator and the ambulance have special stretchers which tilt. They can basically hold you vertically while strapped in. Then when they get you out, it goes back horizontal. It’s sort of like an ironing board. It’s pretty cool.
I was surprised the first time we called an ambulance and I told the paramedics that I could take them behind to the bigger, freight elevator and they said, “No, we’ll get the other one.” Which was quicker.
I thought of stairs as well, but what if you’re on the 20+ floor? I’m sure many office building’s elevators can’t fit a stretcher.
If the elevator won’t hold a stretcher, it won’t hold a twin-size box spring. How’d all those 20 floors of apartments get furnished?
I’m pretty sure there are building codes that designate how big the elevator has to be for buildings with floors that exceed XX number. A 20 floor building probably has a different size elevator than a building with only 5 floors.
You’re not wrong but there are exceptions. For instance, the hotel I worked in was designated a historical landmark so we could not alter any of the structures including the elevators. The hotel had 25 floors.
You can raise things up the side of the buildings and put them in through a service window if needed. They do that in Chicago in older areas.
Been there, done that. It ain’t fun, for all parties concerned.
Many ambulance and fire / rescue services often have rescue chairs for just such occasions. Also they could use a stokes basket and most certainly stand you up on end in one of those. Finally, it is not unheard of to call for an tower truck and just bring you out the window, if everything else seems too difficult.
I have known of the story where the pre-planned move of a morbidly obese fellow on the upper floor of an old city apartment revolved around removing a section of wall and bringing the patient out and down via a tower. It was done on an early Sunday morning as it involved the closing of a major street in downtown Baltimore. After extrication the patient was moved by a special ambulance (he wouldn’t fit in a normal one) to the hospital for treatment.
As totally fascinating as the story was we didn’t actually show it since doing so would be such an intrusion into the poor fellow’s life.
On a related note, and I do not remember if this was the occasion, I know the Baltimore Aquarium’s aquatic ambo has been used for especially heavy patients, as that vehicle is made to move creatures up to the size of (literally) small whales.
Around here they have a rescue chair with mechanical feet for apartments without elevators. The one time I saw it, it climbed down three flights in fairly quick time. I guess it would also fit in an elevator.
Most, if not all, stretchers can have a section in the back that folds down that takes about 2 feet off the total length. You can see it in this picture. If it still doesn’t fit in the elevator, we’ll improvise. If you have a chair with wheels on it, we’ll move you out in that, for example. We also carry Rescue Seats, which come in handy, too.
We don’t carry stair chairs, which is fine with me. They’re a pain in the ass.
St. Urho
Paramedic
Most all ambulance stretchers will shorten up by raising the back rest and collapsing the front end of the frame. We have to do this all the time in the smaller elevators.
The stair chair technology is in full bloom.
We just purchased the Stryker 6250
The one we would like 6254 Has the stair tracked runners.
Powered unit for UP and down use.
And then there is also a good solid dining room chair used to carry a pt. to the stretcher.
I got to demo one of those. It works alright going down, but it’s really, really heavy when you’re doing anything else with it.
Thanks everyone, I feel safer knowing there are ways to get stretchered out even if the lift is too small.