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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Southwest Ambulance has acquired two ambulances specially equipped to transport patients who are severely overweight.
They are wider than regular ambulances to accommodate extra-wide gurneys and still leave room for emergency crews to work.
They also have a winches to make it easier to lift patients into the vehicles.
The new, wider gurneys can hold up to 1,600 pounds.
The old gurneys were strong enough to carry the morbidly obese passengers, but sometimes the straps were tight or had to be extended, and the side safety rails couldn't always be lifted.
And patients felt both less secure and embarrassed, said Southwest EMS administrator Rebecca Merrell.
"This really keeps dignity" intact, she said.
The new capability comes with some tricky issues, Merrell acknowledged.
Emergency crews are not going to take the time to wait for one of the special units in a crisis where every second counts.
And they're not going to start asking people who call 911 what the patient weighs.
But they hope that learning the units are available will encourage people who need them to ask for service.
Because so many health problems are related to morbid obesity, emergency crews may respond to the homes of some heavy people repeatedly and it's likely some addresses will be recognized by dispatchers as places where the new units would be helpful, Merrell said.
She said that most of the time, the request for the units comes from fire personnel already on the scene.
The new units also are used to transport patients who are not overweight.
Information from: Deseret Morning News,
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
