KED

[Guest guest]

Hi all, yes im afraid its another question!

Just did a joint ex with the local ambulance service where a

guy had fallen and was now sat against a tree.

He had a fractured femur and humerus and due to the fall the paramedic decided

to go with spinal precautions.

I was part of the group moving him to the stretcher and was a little surprised

to see that not only were the crotch straps on the KED not connected but his

head was not secured either.

This led to him sliding down the ked as soon as he was moved and the difficult

job of moving him on steep ground was made harder by having to get someone 'on

the head' the whole time.

Once we had him on the stretcher/vac mat his head was secured and the mat

moulded around and hardened up.

After the ex I asked the paramedic why he had chosen to do it in this way his

answer went along these lines.

The crotch straps were left off due to the femur being fractured, he didn't

want to risk further damage, also he couldn't get the ked down far enough behind

the casualty because the tree was in the way.

There was little point securing the head before the move as you would still

need someone to support the head even though the KED is on

I wont argue with the femur, I wasn't told how high the fracture was. However

the crotch strap could have been secured on the other leg.

We routinely roll/lift and otherwise shuffle casualties onto spine boards, heads

are returned to neutral alignment. We do this to enable us to properly

immobilise the casualty. If something is preventing the ked being applied

properly (in this case a tree) shouldn't the patient be moved until it will fit

properly?

I did at the time question him about still having to provide manual inline

stabilization even after the ked is fully secured and in fairness he did seek a

second opinion from the senior ambulance guy at the scene. He seemed to think

that 'if there was any chance of movement' then you should still have manual

stabilisation. Surely if there is chance of movement then he isn't strapped in

properly! I refer you back to the beginning with the straps.

Please don't get me wrong im not trying to run him down or second guess the guy,

we were getting eaten by bugs while I was asking him about it so we both may

have been off track a little. It just seems that to use a ked in this manner

goes against most of what I have been taught about it over the years.

Id appreciate feed back especially from the guys who use keds a lot. And if the

man in question happens to be on the list gimme a shout, we can go through it

with less bugs.

Mike