In article <003a01c25b73$c5143e00$2fa91e3e@AdrianFogarty>, Adrian
Fogarty <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Yes John, I believe any cord injury will happen at the moment of impact;
>it's highly unlikely that the patient will cause further damage in the ED.
>Like any unstable fracture, the forces causing deformity are maximal upon
>impact. Like you, I've never seen a definite exacerbation of cord injury in
>the ED. By the same token the patient who is mobilising at the scene is
>extremely unlikely to come to harm in the ED, so I get peeved when they
>arrive immobilised, or even worse when they get immobilised by the triage
>nurse.
>
Generally, I feel the same
But to be fair, there is another issue for the ambulance service -
someone with a stable injury or a guarded unstable one at the scene may
not be so stable in the event of the ambulance hitting something,
stopping quickly etc
This had not really occurred to me until someone pointed it out
Having said that - we had a chap we were searching for eventually find
himself (or rather, us) a few months ago - had had 2 big tumbling falls
whilst hiking the afternoon before - he walked to us. We sat him in the
small police helicopter and flew him to the airfield. He walked from
the helicopter - got in the ambulance and was promptly immobilised
despite a mild protestation from me
Cheers
--
Jel Coward
The UK Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician and Command Physician course is
10-16th November 2002 at Glenmore Lodge, Aviemore, Scotland
http://www.wildmedic.org
http://www.wemsi.org
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'There's no such thing as bad weather - just bad clothing"
Anon Norwegian
