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Orange County (FLA) Fire Rescue 'Bariatric Ambulance' for Obese Patients
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/florida-fire-department-buys-bariatric-ambulance-obese-patients ^ | 3/29/2013 | Ashley Davis

Posted on 03/29/2013 3:59:38 PM PDT by llevrok

The Orange County Fire Rescue Department in Florida has invested thousands of dollars in a new ambulance designed for carrying morbidly obese patients. Over the past few years, they've seen an increase in the number of 911 calls to patients weighing more than 500 pounds.

Called "Bariatric One," it comes with a $23,000 lift gate that can pick up 1,100 pounds as well as a stretcher ten inches wider than normal.

The fire rescue, serving Orange County, an area just outside of Orlando, said that a third of all patients taken to the hospital are obese.

"In the past, you'd have to get five, six, seven firefighters to physically lift the patient in. It increases the chance that something could happen to the patient," a fire official said.

"It also greatly increases the chance that something could happen with back injuries within fire services."

With the lift gate, firefighters don't have to worry about lifting extremely heavy patients into the ambulance. The hydraulics will safely place folks into the truck.

It will be used across the city when an overweight person calls for help.

They said it is worth the thousands they paid for it as it will eventually cut down on resources and time.

This isn't the first area to use a bariatric ambulance. Several other places, like Boston, Mass., have purchased the specialized vehicle.

The lift gate is made in Long Beach, Calif.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: fat; michelle; sourcetitlenoturl
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Fat Ass Rights !!!!!(now that Gay rights is a closed topic of discussion!
1 posted on 03/29/2013 3:59:38 PM PDT by llevrok
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To: llevrok

Don’t worry! ObamaCare will take care of this. You have to be weighed and they measure your height when you go to the doctor now. When ObamaCare is fully in place, what will happen to all the fatties? We think if you are white Christian conservative you will be shot or at least put into concentration prison camp.


2 posted on 03/29/2013 4:01:54 PM PDT by buffyt (Glowbull Warming the Greatest Hoax ever perpetrated on Mankind! since Y2K & Glowbull Cooling!)
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To: llevrok

On the other hand my friend who was a nurse, who is a tiny woman, broke her neck lifting patients who were too heavy for her to lift. And they weren’t even all that big.


3 posted on 03/29/2013 4:02:43 PM PDT by buffyt (Glowbull Warming the Greatest Hoax ever perpetrated on Mankind! since Y2K & Glowbull Cooling!)
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To: llevrok

You have to work at it and have one or more enablers to get that fat. I wish I could gain 10 lbs..


4 posted on 03/29/2013 4:09:08 PM PDT by elkfersupper ( Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: llevrok
you gonna eat that???
?

future passenger...

5 posted on 03/29/2013 4:17:19 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: llevrok

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.


6 posted on 03/29/2013 4:18:08 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: elkfersupper

I lots 60 over the last couple of years. The next 10 have been staying around for a while. If you send me your fax number, I will send these to you. :-)


7 posted on 03/29/2013 4:18:34 PM PDT by llevrok (Keep your arms out. It makes it harder for them to throw a net over you.)
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To: llevrok

8 posted on 03/29/2013 4:22:52 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative ("Progressives" toss the word "racist" around like chimps toss their feces)
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To: Chode

it amazes me how parents of such morbidly obese children actually think its cute....


9 posted on 03/29/2013 4:24:23 PM PDT by cherry
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To: cherry
child abuse... makes ya wonder how big the parents are
10 posted on 03/29/2013 4:26:07 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Venturer
and once these huge people get to the hospitals, it'll be the stressed out nurses haven't to turn them, wipe their butts, wash their crevices, etc, usually by themselves or maybe a couple of others, if they aren't tied up with their own duties...

no bulky firemen in the hospital...

11 posted on 03/29/2013 4:26:48 PM PDT by cherry
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To: llevrok

Bariactric health care is a massive, growing business segment.


12 posted on 03/29/2013 4:31:59 PM PDT by Dysart ( Democracy is the road to socialism-- Karl Marx)
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To: Dysart
Bariactric health care is a massive, growing business segment.

Literally

13 posted on 03/29/2013 4:37:59 PM PDT by llevrok (Keep your arms out. It makes it harder for them to throw a net over you.)
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To: Venturer

——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


14 posted on 03/29/2013 4:41:08 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....The fairest Deduction to be reduced is the Standard Deduction)
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To: bert

Yes IMO the only thing this special ambulance is good for is loading them after you get them outside.


15 posted on 03/29/2013 4:44:28 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: cherry

They have patient lifts that have harnesses for lifting these people while changing the sheets and washing their butts.

They look a lot like an engine lift for a car only chromed. They use a hydraulic cylinder.You get the harness on them and jack them up.


16 posted on 03/29/2013 4:49:24 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: llevrok

Why not equip them with a cargo container, mounted to a semi-truck and a forklift?


17 posted on 03/29/2013 5:25:52 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: elkfersupper

Had a guy who weighed over 800 lbs in my town

When had to go to hospital we (the FD) had to cut a hole in wall

So was so fat could not use an ambulance - had to strap him
to back of flatbed tow truck!

Should have seen the nurses when backed tow truck into ambuiance bay at hospital.....!


18 posted on 03/29/2013 5:47:18 PM PDT by njslim (St)
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To: elkfersupper

Had a guy who weighed over 800 lbs in my town

When had to go to hospital we (the FD) had to cut a hole in wall

So was so fat could not use an ambulance - had to strap him
to back of flatbed tow truck!

Should have seen the nurses when backed tow truck into ambuiance bay at hospital.....!


19 posted on 03/29/2013 5:48:49 PM PDT by njslim (St)
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To: cherry

Heck, nurses don’t clean patients anymore. They throw the supposedly clean gowns at ya and say someone will be back later. But..they never show up.


20 posted on 03/29/2013 5:50:38 PM PDT by dforest (I have now entered the Twilight Zone.)
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