Trapped In Railing By Head

[lutan1]

Found this link to an article on this site about a young girl trapped in the hand railing of stairs.

It's interesting to note that they had to use the jaws to remove here from her predicament- I would have thought in this scenario (From my experience at doing these also) that if she got in there, then with a bit of minor manipulation from the FF's they could have got her out without resorting to tools....

[Tooanfrom]

The old way?

Push child further thru railing--turn child upside down-bring child out the same way it got into this incident. Do not cut ears off child-do not cut railings-number off staff used is equal to size of child/adult.

[ADSNWFLD]

People can get into situations that they can't get out of without aggrivating their injuries.
Aside from the many children through railings calls we go to, we also get kids stuck in chair backs, in sewer grates, and other situations. I've even been to a kid stuck in a infant swing at a playground. The seat had to be cut apart because he was so wedged in that no amount of manipulation would have gotten him out without injury.

Don't let a desire to not cause more damage risk the trapped person's safety. Every situation has to be carefuly evaluated and whatever is in the patients best interest needsto be done. We also caused about $1000 damage to an old pop machine that a small girl's hand was trapped in. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

I would question the use of hydraulic cutters. Often the material being cut "snaps" possibly causing further injury to the pt.

[CollegeBuff]

I'm thinking jaws for speed and noise- the article said the child was already very upset, and I don't figure a Sawz-All or a hacksaw 6 inches over her head would improve her mental state. One FF with a hand on the railing being cut or even a rope tied to it held by a ff who could provide tension away from the child would be sufficient I would think.

[Bones42]

Use spreader to spread the rail enough, once child is removed, squeeze the rails back to original spot.

No damage, no injury, good P.R.

[FlyingKiwi]

Bones

I agree with that assesment, no need to cut. It looked like one guy could bend the bars enough by hand to get her out.

[Resq14]

I tend to think the Camden crew would have used their brawn to spread the bars if they could have done so. Those railings are deceptively strong however. And you can't always manipulate someone out of those jams, no matter how much you pull and "un-pretzel", or how much soapy water you use to make them slippery.

While I'm leary of using that hydraulic cutter in that instance, I tend to think I would have done the same thing. WIth spreaders you now worry about the tips kicking up or down, and possibly into the child. I'd rather put some blocking between the bars to keep them from collapsing, and cut where they did.

I also considered cutting the top rail off, and lifting the child out. Yes, it disables the railing a little more, but you would not have to worry about one of the side rails twisting into the child.

Of all the other options: rebar cutter, sawzall, porta-power cutter, hacksaw, cutting torch, lifting bag (am I missing anything), I think they chose the best option. Granted, we weren't there, etc etc. Just going by what we're reading here.

A couple years ago we had a child that fell into a forked tree trunk and was wedged between the two trunks. After a lengthy effort to lubricate the child and disentangle him, we opted to use air bags to gently spread the trees apart just enough to lift the child out. Worked slick. This railing is tight quarters, and the vertical rails are a very small diameter, so I think it would be hard to do even with the smaller "mini-bags."