Heavy Weights

[firedoc5]

I know everyone has had a patient that is "larger" than most. I think the heaviest I had was a little old lady that lived at home in the boondocks. First time called on her it was just me and one other guy. A lot of huffing and puffing, but got her in. Laundry scale at hosp. tipped her at about 723 lbs.

I wasn't on the call but one gentleman who was a family friend and one of my first boss' while working summer jobs, went down. At one time he as at 670 lbs. When he went down he was slimmed down to 466 lbs. He was also about 6'7". Had to take the cot out, use a tarp and literally wedged him in back between the squad bench and the shelving. At the funeral it took 13 pall barers that were all on the high school basketball team. Had to have a special casket flown in.

[IndianaEMT81]

I currently work in for a private BLS Transport co. and we have a 500lb woman whom is BKA x 1 and DEAD WEIGHT to slide on sheets. (Who by the way has a mini fridge on one side of her bed and a microwave on the other--no joke!) We take her every M, W, F for dialysis and you don't get a lift assist because our company is a bunch of idiots. But besides that point we also have another pt that also weighs over 700lbs but not sure on exact lbs.

Our transport company has quite a bit of morbidly obese pt's and it seems that its definitely a growing trend. Just 2 days ago we were sent to a 27 yo. f w weight of 230 for transport. After we arrive, me and my partner (who is also a female) get her loaded and she was closer to 350. Anyone ever have that same problem with people not giving the correct weight and rolling up to something COMPLETELY no where near actual weight?

[firedoc5]

Anyone ever have that same problem with people not giving the correct weight and rolling up to something COMPLETELY no where near actual weight?

Oh yeah. And I just love it when a family member says that the patient shouldn't be too hard to lift because they just lost a lot of weight, and they still weigh over 300lbs.

[Fluffpaw38]

At the ambulance company i plan at working at they have 2 LARGE ambulances specifically made for HEAVEY patients, special stretcher, and a nice winch in the back.

[spenac]

At the ambulance company i plan at working at they have 2 LARGE ambulances specifically made for HEAVEY patients, special stretcher, and a nice winch in the back.

But you still have to get them onto the stretcher. What we need is a lift that we can wheel in and get them onto the stretcher. Don't know if there is a portable device for that. Maybe some of our inventors could do that.

[Fluffpaw38]

THERE YA GO!

[Lone Star]

Y'all are complaining about lightweights here!

I had a pt that I had to move in a regular basis that tipped the scales at 1685 pounds (764.303 143 45 kilograms)

Yes class, I said one THOUSAND, six HUNDRED, eighty-five pounds!

She was featured on a special Jerry Springer....before he started the current 'inbred trailer trash' format

*DISCLAIMER* Just because aomeone lives in a 'mobile home', 'modular home', or a 'trailer'....I am not implying they are 'inbred trailer trash'!!!!

Jerry Springer actually tried to get her professional help, with counseling, weight loss and medical assistance. Unfirtunately, she died before it could be completely arranged.

[MSDeltaFlt]

1700#?!? Damn! The heaviest I ever transported was a 700 lb'er I DC'd from our ICU to the ICU in her home town. Our maintenance dept bolted 2 beds together. We had to leave our stretcher at the ER and had her on the floor of our truck. She was barely able to fit on their single bed at her hospital.

Upon sliding this pt from the floor of our truck to her ICU bed, the bed rolled over my big toe joint; during a particularly strong gout flare up.

I stopped crying the following week.

[captainstandup]

We had a patient that based on the freight scales at the rear of the hospital weighed 923. He was at least 800 and honestly when you are this big who wants to quibble over a hundred pounds?

Response to this guy's house was unbelievably bad. It took two fire departments, the rescue squad and two EMS units to manage him. He was always rude, never grateful and the smell was wicked. There were six other super obese patients in the county, all requiring far more than their share of community resources to manage them during frequent trips to the hospital and the many return trips to the residence.

This speaks to the greater issue of the "massive" impact these type patients wreak on communities. They burden every aspect of public service, health care and most are recipients of public aid and do not contribute one cent in taxes. Hospitals are forced to lease or purchase bariatric equipment, EMS services are forced to purchase specialized equipment to handle these people and if not must risk placing them on equipment not rated for the load. This presents an increased risk of being sued if there is a collapse of the stretcher.

The most important risk, in my opinion, is in the risk of injury to emergency services personnel. I realize there is a surplus of paramedics in America and no one has trouble recruiting and retaining them, NOT! An injured emergency worker is not only a loss to the community, but how many of their families can survive on 66 2/3% of their salary paid by workers comp for an extended period of time?

It was understood in our service that we would take reasonable measures to care for the super obese but, we were not going to risk injuring personnel regardless of patient acuity. Scene safety extended to handling the patient in a manner that considered rescuer safety and risk of injury above the needs of the patient. This is the manner we should approach all calls.

This topic has been covered, generally speaking, in a past thread, but I think it worth mentioning the issue of property damage that occurs during management of the super obese. Communities must take measures to ensure that EMS, Fire and Rescue Departments are held harmless in situations where structures are damaged in the process of removing obese patients from a residence. I have heard of cases where walls were breached and doorways enlarged with a rescue saw to aid in removal of these folks.

We were taking a 450 man back to the residence (yes we had to do the returns back in the day) and this guy had the audacity to ask us not only to stop at McDonalds but to buy him three big macs. Neither one of us had any money that night and we didn't stop.