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?

I think maybe people are getting these type for mountain trips incase of emergency

We called an ambulance the first time it read low who put their finger thing on and it was fine.
Patient recovered fairly quickly so we didn’t use it again.
Although the whole family read their pulse on it out of interest 😂

Yes or sporting events I think.

So patient was or wasn't I'll?
The machine was ok on medic?

Patient had problems with breathing they were worried about Pneumonia.
Nurse checked Oxygen levels all ok then left us with the gadget to monitor it ourselves and to call an ambulance if they dropped. Which they did, only they didn’t.

A friend of my husband is a keen mountaineer.
He once came back down in a way that a parachute would have worked better than a stretcher.
That said, a stretcher did come in useful once he hit the bottom for his several broken bones.
Meanwhile, my husband was clinging onto his crampons wondering where the heck his mate had gone 🤔

Right ok.

Do you know if it was used properly etc?

It's just an important gadget and it's saved us time etc

This is not a laughing matter, it could be anyone's relative.

One of my parents had a stroke a couple of months ago and was paralyzed from the neck down, we were told an ambulance would be over 2 hours despite living near the hospital so my teenager helped carry them to the car and damaged their own back in doing so. They were close to dropping them but we didnt know what else to do.

My parent was extremely fit and active running around earlier on the day of the stroke. I drove them to a & e and we parked in the ambulance bay and carried them in. I vowed then to buy something to carry them plus a fold up wheelchair just in case something ever happened again.

I would totally recommend it if you have elderly relatives. It is very scary when you have a paralyzed person and are told there are no ambulances. It could happen to anyone.

During the times between lockdowns, I attended a support group, and we all got zapped with one of those remote temperature taking gadgets. Every single person that came through the door was read as being hypothermic. No fever though, so obviously safe.

Wondering where it all went wrong maybe I’m actually planning Snowdon soon I didn’t think of the dangers but I will now 👍🏼

If you can get clot busting treatment quickly after a stroke there is a much better chance of recovery so it is definitely worth getting to hospital quickly if you can. You should be given priority in triage so it is not a reason so wait if there are no ambulances and you can get there.

I feel sick at all the flippant comments here. There have been plenty of 40 and 50 years on the stroke ward over the last few months. It could happen to anyone.

Wasn’t there a thread here recently where a poster’s aunty had been waiting over 24 hours with a suspected hip break?

I once sat with a neighbor who had broken his hip… the 4 minutes we waited for an ambulance was enough to convince me it was no joke. I don’t think I’d last any longer than that before begging people to get me to a hospital by any means available (well besides sitting in a taxi I think I’d leave that option off the table with a broken hip).

I think this is one of those times I can sit back and be thankful for my average 5 minute ambulance response time no matter what the call is.

I mean on the surface it is ridiculous that some people are thinking this is needed in where you live…a little deeper and it really should make you all stop and think about what you have come to accept as normal.

Agree - those are not at all suitable for moving anyone with a potential fracture.

I don’t think OP should be buying a stretcher, but if anyone is, they need a proper scoop stretcher which will provide some rigidity and support. A quick google suggests they are about £700.

Well mine tells me that I'm still alive at least 👍

Top tip. Only ever move one hand or one foot at any time.
Maybe his friend didn't heed his own advice and decided to do a ' look mum, no hands ' before bouncing back down.

I maybe should try and find our faulty one but I would imagine it’ll need a new battery.

@Sparklingbrook Go on, you know you want to.
I'd advise you to buy a stretcher first though in case it's bad news when you do 😉

Glad you can all laugh about the situation. Perhaps why so many people just the lack of ambulances and other NHS issues.

I think the point is self care where possible.

I would have had own peace of mind etc and less Doc trip had I known about simple gadget the Doc's use.

We also had a wheelchair for a while it was extremely useful ..

I think we should be encouraged to self care more including antibiotics. My polish neighbours couldn't believe we had to go through such hassler to get them.

How was your husbands friends after he parachuted down? At least your husband was sensible. I’ve been training doing smaller climbs to build up to it

Umm no, that would be because of people repeatedly voting Tory.

Head

No..

Under the last Labour government after 10 year's, a decade of labour funding our local hospital was failed.

People were terrified of being sent there it was scary.
Your post deeply concerns me because funding really isn't the only issue.
It needs a massive overhaul and the culture behind it.

@JanuaryBluehoo I think we should be encouraged to self care more including antibiotics. My polish neighbours couldn't believe we had to go through such hassler to get them.

Self prescribing antibiotics will do wonders for the alarming global antibiotics resistance!

Apparently they have a different system in Europe..as Said people from the EU were astonished at how hard it was to access them..

We need a different route we are holding back a small tide here.

I think we should be encouraged to self care more including antibiotics. My polish neighbours couldn't believe we had to go through such hassler to get them

How would you know if the illness you have is viral or bacterial? And if you have a bacterial infection, how would you know which antibiotic to get?