Confined Space Patient Care

To what extent do you provide patient care for people in confined spaces, i.e. IV's, etc.? What packaging devices do you like, and why?

In confined spaces, if there is an atmospheric hazard, the first priority is to provide an air supply to the victim. Once this has been done, the selection of packaging is based primarily on the situation. In some cases little to no packaging may be done if there is no evidence of injury or the space does not allow. A suggested minimun in our depts SOP is a LSP Halfback and a sked or half sked. The half SKED is ideal for drags but is not rated for lifting in any configuration. Stokes is virtually useless in confined space rescues. Hasty harness retrievals are another option as well as wristlet recoveries, but these are not preferred unless there is no other option.

Initiating ALS in a confined space is not recommended. At the very least, it is more stuff to get in the way while trying to get this person out. Each situation is different, but the space could be contaminated, thus introducing contaminants into the patient. E33 hit on the retrieval basics, follow him.

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IAFF 995
When it has to be done right,
CALL THE RESCUE CO.!!!!!

The only patient care we will provide inside of the confined space is life saving and or spinal imoblization. We provide scba to the patient if we know or suspect any atmospheric problems( scba instead of medical O2 because of the potential of O2 to raise the possibility of a fire inside the space).We will package the patient in either a halfback device or a miller board all according to what the space and time will allow and the sked,again if space or time will allow.The most important thing to remember when it comes to patient removal from a confined space is "life over limb" , get the patient out and let the paramedics do all of their advanced skills outside where it is safe.