The struggles of EMS series 1

I was recently on the Al Qudra bicycle track with a friend, he's a fairly tall and heavy guy. We had decided to go out for a cycle, we started later than we should have and it was around 35°C (95°F) outside. When we were around 30km away from the Last Exit he fell off the bicycle. We had been going around 35kph at the time with a strong tailwind, so when he fell, he fell hard.

We figured he had hurt his head because he kept losing consciousness. Needless to say, I was in a complete panic!

I called 998 and an emergency vehicle arrived within 10 minutes. I was super impressed with how fast they got out there.

They immediately tried to get my friend to stand up so that they could get him into the ambulance, but, he continues to stumble and lose consciousness, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed again. The paramedics were two smaller men and they were unable to keep him on his feet as he was double their size.

It took us around 20-30 minutes to get him to a position where he could be safely lifted into the ambulance and rushed to Al Rashid Hospital.

Of course, once he was in the ambulance everything ran pretty smoothly. He was safely deposited at the emergency department where they hydrated him, cleaned all his wounds and bandaged him up from his shoulders to his hands, most of his legs and his side body. Luckily nothing was broken and his head was not injured. The doctors just figured he was dehydrated and in shock which is why he had been fainting.

I breathed a sigh of relief as we exited the hospital and I took him out for ice-cream, bandaged hands and all.

Once the stress had subsided I began telling him about how long the paramedics had taken to get him into the emergency vehicle in the first place. If he had actually seriously hurt himself and couldn't have walked how on earth would they have helped him?

He brushed this off saying something along the lines of "Well, I guess I just shouldn't fall off the bike again" with some light laughter. I on the other hand did not find it as funny as he had.

It led me to wonder, how could this problem be solved? What could we do to ease the lives of paramedics and their patients?

There has to be something.

This is when I stumbled across the post-fall management specialist in the UK known as Mangar Health. Long story short, we now distribute their products. Namely:

1. Camel Lifting Cushion
2. ELK Lifting Cushion

Did you know that due to the repetitive nature of recovery, healthcare workers often sustain stress injuries while picking up their patients? Mangar Health have developed multiple inflatable patient care tools which enable healthcare workers to lift their patient without causing any back strain and helping the patient maintain their dignity.

The chance of an injury to a healthcare worker reduces by up to 41% when a lifting device is readily available.

The patient can easily shimmy onto the deflated cushion or they can be rolled onto it by the paramedics. Once the patient is safely on top of the cushion it can be inflated with the push of a button. Allowing the patient to be in a seated position where they are able to stand easily.

In addition, if the person is unable to stand up, the paramedics can attach the elk lifting cushion to the stretcher.

This allows them to lift the stretcher to a height that would make it easier to move the patient over to the ambulance without the risk of stress injury.

Both the Elk and Camel Lifting Cushions are ideal for Emergency Services, Care Homes, Hospitals and home use.

Ref: Mangar Health Limited