CODY, Wyo. - After receiving a 911 call, dispatch sent a Lakeland Fire Department rescue unit to respond to a fall victim in a 55+ mobile home community. While en route dispatch received additional information and the responders learned this wasn’t an average citizen lift assist call. While taking a walk the elderly citizen fell, sliding down a muddy embankment into a stream below. When learning of this unique rescue scenario additional resources, including Lt. Chilton’s Engine, were dispatched.
“The rescue arrived first and determined the patient wasn’t injured, he just couldn’t get out of the situation he was in”, recounts Chilton. He immediately began thinking of resources they had that may help. Using a ladder wasn’t ideal because of the patient’s limited mobility, and carrying the patient on a backboard would be strenuous on his team and traumatic for the patient. That’s when a light-bulb went off and he remembered the Binder Lift had recently been added to his apparatus. “We were able to easily put it around him and used the handles to help him up the embankment,” says Chilton, “it was a very simple, easy, and a safe way to get him out of there.”
Rescue Chief Shane Reynolds chairs the department’s physical health committee and they are always on the lookout for ways to make lifting patients safer for their firefighters. After being introduced to the Binder Lift by Assistant Chief Hartzog, Reynolds knew this was the solution they needed. Though they had Megamovers - a soft stretcher device used for carrying or dragging non-ambulatory patients - it fell short when used for lifting and assisting patients. “My goal is to give them a way to get better body mechanics when lifting all sized patients” said Reynolds. It is nearly impossible to lift with proper body mechanics when there is no handle to grasp, and unfortunately humans don’t come with handles. But now, Lakeland firefighters can bring their own.
About Binder Lift,
The first Binder Lift was created in 2012 by Dan Binder to prevent his wife’s back from getting injured while performing her duties as an EMT-I. Today, we still have the same core focus of providing a safer way to lift for all fire and EMS personnel. Our products are manufactured right here in the USA by R&B manufacturing in Oakwood, Ohio. We are a family operated business that keeps our family values in the business environment. Give us a call, we’d love to chat.