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Date: 14 Dec 2001 17:05:13 GMT
From: davehinznopsamcop.net
Subject: Re: EMT's - question for you


F Wills <Fred.Willsnopsamam.starband.net> pressed random keys until the following was produced: > <davehinznopsamcop.net> wrote in message > news:3c199be6$0$30978$272ea4a1nopsam.execpc.com... >> >> Yup. You're safer if the car cabin stays intact. If the door is flopping >> around, or if you're bouncing around within the car, then the systems in >> place to protect you won't help, because you're either hanging out the >> window, or in the wrong place for the airbags, crumple zones, etc to help. > OK. I'm not an EMT, in fact I've never even been involved in any serious > accidents (knocking on wood) but let me play the devil's advocate here. Why > would you assume that the door is any less likely to open during a crash if > it is locked? I don't get this. For the door to pop open, the mechanical > latch mechanism would have to malfunction. Why would that be less likely to > occur if it has the lock engaged? Well, for the latch *and* the lock to allow the door to open, *two* mechanisms have to fail, rather than one. Luckily, the same thing that helps a door be more secure when it's locked, helps out in an accident. Of course, everyone's lock and latch is different. For instance, on a Saab 96 (there! vaguely back on topic!) the key-lock on the handle, only locks the pushbutton, and doesn't affect the latch. Yet, the internal door lock links down to the latch itself, and provides a latch to the latch. This would probably help, and definately not hurt. The key-lock on that car would have no effect; it just swivels a push-bar around so that it does, or does not, activate the latch. >> I can't cite any studies, just personal experience, and I haven't taken >> a survey of who has, and has not, locked their doors when we come to > extricate >> them, - but - a locked door certainly has a better chance of staying shut, >> and that's a good thing. The door being locked, won't slow us down *at >> all*. > Perhaps it won't slow down the EMTs when they get to the crash site, but > what about impeding any non-EMT's without the benbefit of Jaws of Life or > other Unnamed Spiffy Car Opening Tools (USCOT?) from assisting? Well, don't get me wrong, but what are you going to do? Unless the car is actively on fire (I've had that as the case once, in almost ten years), there's not a whole lot of benefit for a bystander to take the patient out of the car, and there's lots of potential harm that could come to the patient if someone who is untrained does so. Need to maintain cervical spine immobilization, for one thing; sure would be bad to help someone out of their car, only to cause paralyzation. If they've got trauma, you've got to understand the nature of the injury, so you take them out the right way, so as to minimize further damage from moving them around, and so on. If they're not hurt real bad, but are just stuck in the car, well, we can fix that, and sitting in the car is probably safest for them at that point anyway. When we take folks out of the car, we'll usually use this device here: http://www.life-assist.com/ferno/ked.html ...which isn't real comfortable when you're in it: http://www.kaemse.org/graphics/ked.jpg ...but it does a great job of immobalizing the spine & neck, to make sure that we don't move any of that until its x-rayed to see if there's any injury there. It's a natural reaction to want to run in and help, but acting in the wrong way can cause more harm than it does good. I like the USCOT acronym, by the way ;) Dave Hinz ff/emt

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