Ambulance stretchers for obese

lloydrt

I live in S. Texas, and this article was just published today, in the S A Express News in regards to obese patients and victims of car accidents needing to be transported

if this isnt enough motiviation to keep you on your life change, I don't know what is......

again, not trying to be mean to anyone, Ive been there, done that, but its getting scary when more than 40% of a large metropolitan city is obese and where we are next to Corpus Christi in regards to amputations because of pre diabetes and Diabetes 2.......

stories like this keep me motivated and on the right track

here is what the story says

Express News, 9 - 3 - 2010

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/in_sa_a_specialized_ambulance_for_the_obese_102111044.html

"In a city some consider the seventh-fattest in the United States, a specialized private ambulance designed to handle patients who weigh up to 1,500 pounds makes about 350 trips a year.

More than 40 percent of Bexar County residents are obese, defined as having a body mass index of 30 or higher, said Dr. Fernando Guerra, director of the Metropolitan Health District. A small percentage of them are categorized as being morbidly obese, Guerra said, with a BMI over 40.

People in both categories have difficulty fitting on standard ambulance stretchers, made to carry up to 700 pounds, and sometimes have to ride on the ambulance floor for lack of more comfortable options.

Last year, Acadian Ambulance Service — Bexar County's contract medical service — spent more than $120,000 to acquire what it calls a “bariatric ambulance” to transport obese patients in Bexar County and the surrounding area."

"
If you are 700 to 800 pounds, before this asset was available, you literally would have been put on a mattress or a tarp and about eight paramedics or firemen would have to drag you out of a house, in front of your neighbors,” he said. “We have specially designed tarps with handles to put them on the stretcher and treat them as we would any other patient.”

Overall, San Antonio Fire Department ambulances last year took about 144 patients each day to area hospitals, while Acadian transports about 50 a day, officials said. There is no extra cost to patients transported in the special ambulance, Cirillo said.

In May, Men's Health ranked San Antonio the seventh-fattest city in the country, based on publicly available statistics on percentage of overweight residents, percentage of residents with Type 2 diabetes, the percentage of those who haven't left the couch in a month, money spent on junk food and the number of people who ate fast food nine or more times in one month, according to the magazine's website."