Patient Injured When Stretcher Flips

At the Selectmen's Meeting Wednesday night, Fire Chief Jason Gilliland and Police Chief Robert Picariello discussed a recent incident involving an Atlantic Ambulance crew that accidentally flipped a stretcher with a woman strapped into it.

Joining the pair at the meeting was Kevin Pendergast, Atlantic Amublance's Director of Operations, who clearly explained what happened without revealing the date of the incident or the identity of the patient involved. 

"What occurred was in the course of this medical transport, while transporting the patient by stretcher, one of the wheels got caught up in the pavement and the stretcher tipped, dumping the stretcher and the patient onto their side," Pendergast said. "Despite their best efforts, (crew members) couldn’t catch the stretcher before it hit the ground."

Pendergast went on to say that this kind of mishap is not entirely uncommon and that the appropriate steps have been taken both by the ambulance crew and the local police and fire departments. 

"Our response to this kind of incident is to have our crew members complete an incident report...and that report gives us the fodder to begin a plan of correction," Pendergast said. 

Although the incident could have been blamed on the section of pavement that caused the stretcher to flip, Pendergast said it was simply a case of operational error on the part of the ambulance crew.

"We have stretchers that collapse and raise up and the general rule is that the stretcher should be in the retracted position when you move it," Pendergast said. "When you put the stretcher into the back of the ambulance it has to be in the fully extended position and this crew made a misjudgement and they moved the patient while it was in the extended position before they got to the back of the ambulance."

Pendergast said he followed up with the the woman involved after she was discharged from the hospital and gave her his contact information.

"So, from now on, anything she needs from us she can contact me directly and she now has the attention of the person who is responsible for the entire operation," Pendergast said.

After Pendergast explained what happened and laid out a plan of action for the immediate future, both Gilliland and Picariello told board members that they have been pleased with the work of Atlantic Ambulance crews in the past.

"We’ve had a very good rapport with Atlantic Ambulance in the past and this is the first such incident we’ve had and I feel that they have a plan to prevent any future incident from occurring," Gilliland said.

Although the incident is cause for concern, Select Board members said they were pleased with how quickly both departments addressed the incident.

"It seems that you’ve addressed this very efficiently and you are taking it very seriously," said Board Chairman James E. Nye.