Originally posted by lutan1
The only time I could see this being an option would be if you have the metal impaled into a victim and the call is made that you have to get that victim out NOW and any further delay will likely be fatal. At that point, I MIGHT turn to the OIC and ask for permission to make the attempt and deal with the potential results. By this time, we would have as much physical protection in place since we would have been working on releasing the piece from the weaker metals holding it up to this point.
I don't see this as a likely scenario... but I never say "never". I preach to never cut a steering column, but I had to make that call once when we had a victim go into trauma arrest on scene because he was pinned between the steering wheel and the seat of his van. Our attempts to break the seat rails and side supports were thwarted by the amount of materials shifted forward inside the van that denied us access to where we needed to make cuts. When he went pulseless on us, we clipped the steering column and did the old "rapid roll-out" on him. I didn't want to do it, and it knotched the cutter surface... but you can't do chest compressions with the chest compressed with a steering wheel. End result was he expired anyway, but at least we gave him that "chance" to live... which he would have been denied if we would have continued to prod around trying to get the seat moved back.
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