To buy a stretcher and keep it at home in case of emergency?

[Summersoon8]

I had the thought of doing this and then a few days later I read the story of an elderly man with a broken hip with no ambulances available (not even given a long wait time, just told none available at all) and his family took him to hospital strapped to a plank of wood in the back of a van.

AIBU to consider buying some sort of emergency/folding stretcher online and storing it at home in case we're ever in the same sort of situation?

How are you going you going to get then safely into a stretcher and then carry the weight of the person + stretcher?

To move someone safetly you should use a rigid board, even the lightweight ones aren't easy to move. The fabric sling ones look no better than using a sheet or duvet cover.

Yeah they’ve really no idea. My relative literally just experienced this at the weekend - she and her 6ft rugby playing DH had to get a close elderly relative (who is also 6ft and ex ruby playing) down a sleep flight of stairs - with rigidity of the limbs.

I can tell you a stretcher would have made a big difference.

You can’t move people with injuries like head or back - in that circumstance you’d just have to wait it out.

But with things like heart attacks, strokes, sepsis every minute counts and you need to get them to hospital asap.

As I said upthread my relative was advised by 999 to take relative to hospital themselves there were 400 people in the queue for the ambulance.

Yes, my neighbour is not a big lad but it took two men to get him down the stairs even though he could get up onto his feet himself, he was just weak and unsteady and unable to make it to the toilet unassisted but he could put one foot in front of the other if most of his weight was supported. I don't know how they would've carried him as a dead weight.

@OhBeAFineGuyKissMe I think you are misunderstanding - we injured ourselves carrying the parent with a stroke (we didnt injure the patient). Had we had a carrying chair/stretcher/training in carrying we might not have done so.

However absolutely no regrets as we got them to hospital in time to have clot treatment (just). We just carried them in our arms into the car - anything that had helped over the longer distances between bedroom and car would have helped. There would have been no issue lifting into a carry chair or stretcher it was the distance we had to carry that was the issue. I think a deck chair or duvet cover could have been a better option than our method. Maybe government could do some adverts for us all on how to safely transport our relatives to hospital!!!

All I know is everyone would try anything if they knew there was only a 3 hours window for treatment to possibly reverse the stroke for their husband, child or parent.

@Summersoon8 - when I was in the Guides, we learned how to improvise a stretcher out of two coats and two long poles. If I recall correctly, you do the coats up inside out, then put the poles through the sleeves (that are inside the buttoned up coats, if you see what I mean).

It might be easier to buy and store two long poles than a whole stretcher.

I used to be a nurse, and I do understand what people are saying about the risks of moving an injured person, and in general I wouldn't try it - but the current circumstances are not normal, and I can see that there could be situations in which moving the injured person might be the lesser of two evils. It would have to be a dire circumstance, but maybe such dire circumstances are happening now.

@Summersoon8 I remember that from guides too ... now! Hard to think straight when you have been woken in the night with news that a parent who seemed very fit has had a stroke and is totally paralyzed and there are no ambulances. I thought strokes would be category one not two. They live near a hospital so never expected over 2 hour delay (and this was November so before all the outcry). Thats why I recommend preparing

This all depends on the home layout and terrain we are talking about and what was on hand. Honestly, if I was alone, I would probably either put them in a rolling chair / sled or carry them (fireman carry if they were small enough or grab them under their arms and pull them). If I had someone with me, we would carry them or use a duvet cover/coats as a sling if necessary.

I just don't see how a stretcher would be faster really (especially when alone) when taking stairs, distance, narrow corridors, etc into account over say a rolling chair or carrying. If there is a spine injury or bone injury, I wouldn't be comfortable moving them onto a stretcher by myself in any event.

I'm not intending to belittle anyone's experience or opinion - if you have the space and money for it, go ahead and get one. IMO, there's equipment and training I would spend the money on before getting a stretcher myself.

@curiousierandcouriser i dont disagree with you. probably why in part i have still not bought anything yet. i was just joining the thread to point out that it is not always best to leave a patient if there is no ambulance and explain our situation and how we injured ourselves and would like to have had something to use, maybe a carry chair, i have no idea.

i agree training would be the most useful but i expect all advice would be to wait for an ambulance so it is petrifying when you are told there isnt one and a very fit active person who could have treatment to reverse the stroke would miss out on it. Plenty of 40 year olds on the stroke ward, we are not just talking about older people.

Hahaha. Who is pulling your strings? What a silly comment.

Whooooosh.

Look at the homepage of BBC website right now. A story about a man who had to carry his father to hospital because he was having a heart attack and there were no ambulances. If he had not carried him he would have died.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64168805

Article in yesterday's telegraph : "5 SOS tactics if you can't get an ambulance."
Apologies - can't do linky thing - but I can do first aid!

A post on my local FB page this morning

How low our country has sunk.

Where do you stop...stab dressings, difibulators? Have you got a first aid qualification and a well stocked kit?

In fact my sister has ordered a defibrillator machine for her office…

A lot more useful in an office with more people coming through doors....some people put them outside and improve chances for all ...if you have one I was told you have to allow anyone who needs it access ...brilliant....but it's not for their personal use

It’s interesting that the posters who thought stretchers were too hilarious darling have not bothered to reply.

A few years ago anybody thinking about getting a stretcher for their home would have been considered a neurotic catastrophiser with little understanding of emergency situations. I am a trained first aider and understand very well that until now the consensus has been that unless you are a medic or paramedic the best you can do is make someone comfortable, monitor them and wait for help. But everything has changed.

Of course I am sure that everyone understands that there are many things that can be made worse by an untrained person attempting to move a patient especially eg with broken limbs. But what about someone with a suspected heart attack, sepsis, or stroke or unconscious for no obvious reason? Do you really just put them in a recovery position and wait for an ambulance that never comes?

And why is the idea of carrying someone into a and e so hilarious? I have done this myself when no ambulance was available. Of course you have to be triaged when you arrive,like everyone else. That means if you are in a real emergency situation you and the stretcher would be given immediate medical attention, but if you weren’t considered emergency you might have to wait on your stretcher on the floor. Yes it sounds comical or like something from the third world. But have you been in an and e lately? That’s the way things are. A person on a stretcher waiting to be seen will really not stand out at all.

And, some people think it is really hilarious that you might have to take a stretcher home again afterwards. And? Yes you might well have to do that. You might even have to take it home in a bus guffaw. Totally hilarious. Except that it’s not. That’s life. I had to do it with an evacuation chair recently when someone collapsed at work, there were no ambulances available for anything and I was advised by the call handler to do just that. Sorry if it doesn’t fit with the way that anyone sees a perfect functioning health service. But that’s the way things are and if you insist on behaving like it’s since 1990 then more fool you.

All very well having a stretcher for a relative. What you wont have is a blue light response to anything. You could end up in rush hour traffic and be stuck there with everyone else. Your stretcher wont skip you through the traffic.

I still don't understand how you are transporting the person on the stretcher to hospital. And all the people you would need around to be able to even get them onto a stretcher.
I don't think it's hilarious just not thought through or practical in any way.

They are only mocking you through fear. When you have a man with a history of heat problems who has collapsed outside on the ground in minus 5 in a rural area and can't speak and are told "there are no ambulances" you need to be able to take control and get them to hospital! It soon shifts your world view. The NHS in my area can't be relied upon for the absolute basics any longer. it is really terrifying when you see it for yourself :(

@Sparklingbrook
I don’t understand why you still don’t know how someone could transport a patient to hospital themselves, without an ambulance. Umpteen people have given their personal experiences on this thread and there have been links to recent news stories too. Here are just some of the ways I have read about or experienced myself.

1. Carried an elderly person having suspected heart attack on foot to hospital
2. Taken an unconscious person in an evacuation chair in a black taxi
3. carried an elderly person with suspected sepsis on a stretcher to hospital on foot
4. taken someone with a suspected stroke by stretcher to a car which then drove to hospital

Instead of having a mental block about this because it does not fit your picture of how things should be, how about listening to people’s actual experiences?

I don't have a 'mental block'. I am just trying to envisage the logistics of trying to get someone on a stretcher and then into a normal sized car and to hospital safely. No need to have a go at me.

Unfortunately I have had an experience where a family member had to go to hospital on a stretcher. It took two ambulance crews and an ambulance, there was no way I could have done it on my own.

Why don’t you think through the logistics of getting someone to hospital without a stretcher and go from there.