Moving The Injured

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 14

Moving The Injured

Sir,—St John Ambulance officials complain that patients are frequently moved from the scene of the accident. There are two sides to this question. I have been present at the scene of three accidents quite recently and at each of these accidents the seriously injured person lay beside the road for not less than hour, although the distance from ambulance headquarters was less than eight miles. In one case the victim lay beside the railway line for almost two hours after the ambulance was called. Would it not be better to move injured persons carefully to the back seat of a car and rush them to hospital, where immediate treatment would in many cases of severe shock undoubtedly save their lives? In each of the cases mentioned here there have been fatalities which I feel might have been avoided if prompt action had been taken, and the ambulance officials’ orders not to move them ignored.— Yours, etc., COMMON SENSE. October 1, 1969.

[The Medical Superintend-ent-in-Chief of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (Dr L. M. Berry) replies: “It is agreed that there are many injuries where early removal to a hospital could be of benefit, provided the person concerned has adequate knowledge and training; otherwise it is probably better to move an injured person as little as possible until somebody with this training is in attendance. There is nothing inherently wrong with lying on the ground, provided the victim is made comfortable and kept warm.”]