Dispatch to Rescue 1...patient transport. 4 additional Rescues en route...

[NJFFSA16]

LILLE, France (Reuters) - A 585-pound French woman
who had not left home in six years was hoisted by crane from
her apartment and taken to hospital, the local fire department
said Monday.
The 49-year-old woman fell ill late Sunday but was too
large to be carried down the winding stairs of her apartment
building in the northern town of Bruay-sur-l'Escaut. It took 30
firemen six hours to extract her from the second-floor
apartment.
"After 28 years with the fire department, it's the first
time I have taken part in this kind of operation. We even had
to dismantle part of the window to evacuate the patient," said
a Bruay fire service official.
The mother of four, who suffers from respiratory problems,
was taken by fire engine to a hospital in nearby Valenciennes
where she remained in critical condition.
REUTERS

[LadyCapn]

(Looks at the Oreo cookie she was about to eat and says.....hmmmmmmmmm maybe not)

Had a couple of these myself. Most of the stretchers were "rated" for 500 lbs, had to use the tarp a few times to get them up off the floor. How do these people function on a day to day basis?

[Firefighter1219]

What about the 1000+ pound guy that wasn't heard from for 4 days? His neighbors noticed he was missing and smelled something rank when they got near his house and called the police. The police went inside to discover his rotting corpse. It took a forklift and a very large hole in his wall to remove him. He was so large that he couldn't even fit in the hearse. They had to build a special trailer for his coffin that the hearse pulled behind it.

[MalahatTwo7]

Ya gotta love these people who weigh in at values most of us associate as "small cars". What always makes me scratch my head is the fact that most of them also have respiratory/cardiac problems that are aggrevated by their physical condition.

I remember the story of the "missing man". I also seem to remember that in his story, part of the reason for his death was attributed to the fact that his diet consisted almost entirely of cabbage and baked beans, and that his bedroom was a sealed room. There seemed to be a ventilation problem on that call...???? Good thing there were no "naked" lights or open flames in the appartment.

[RyanEMVFD]

at least it wasn't a cpr.

we've had several patients like that. takes a bit of creativity to extricate a patient out of a residence.

[MikeF25]

I was at a BTLS class a few months ago and a couple of guys were talking about a call they had.

I guess they had a medical call and when they got there the person too big for the stretcher, so they had to use the solid oak door to move the patient. They were going to airlift this patient, but they weighed too much for that. So what did they do? I believe they called the governor and got permission to use a Blackhawk helicopter from the National Guard, then they had to call the hospital and make sure the roof would support this size helicopter. I guess it all worked out ok.

I am not sure how true it is, but if it is it would have been a cool call to be on, and if not it sure makes a good story.