[hotpig]

I have been in EMS for twenty three years. I have seen a lot more than I want to remember.Today was interesting.

I was on another call so I missed the scene but followed the Ambulance to the ER and assisted there for about an hour.

I knew it would be bad because there was a Police Officer driving our Ambulance and a squad car blocking the intersection so that the ambulance could get through faster.

The Ambulance was staffed with a EMT-P and a EMT-I with a combined street experience of plus twenty years. Also a student EMT-B was on board doing her ride along time.


The call was for a employee of a local tire store that was injured from a tire blowing up.

I have always heard that over inflating tires can be dangerous. I have heard of incidents were a mechanic or other tire pro was injured when a tire blew up while being inflated.

I had never seen it or know anyone who had this type of call, until today.

The patient was A&O X3 c/o SOB. Skin color was gray and he had a small abrasion just right of the mid sternal area. No other obvious injuries or complaints.Total scene time extended to six minutes because the patient became combative when they trauma packaged him.

Transport time was three minutes to the ER. Patient remained combative en route.

Two minutes after arrival in ER the patient went into cardiac arrest.

My contribution was limited to drawing labs, hanging fluids and doing my turn at CPR.

Chest xray showed trauma to the aorta and the patient bleed out internally.

Since the patient was only twenty five with a signed donor card and consent by the family he was parted out. At least there is a silver lining for some today.

[fjnardo]

You know, I've heard of these types of injuries from tires, but hope to never see one. I've been a Paramedic for 13 years now and yes, there are calls that I too hope to forget sometime.

[SnowCajun]

Originally Posted by fjnardo

You know, I've heard of these types of injuries from tires, but hope to never see one. I've been a Paramedic for 13 years now and yes, there are calls that I too hope to forget sometime.

I drove trucks for years and was standing behind a tire repairman refilling my fixed tire with air once. It's those old lock ring truck tires that are so bad, if that ring isn't set right it'll blow off like a shotgun going off in your face. I watched this guy tap the ring with a small sledge hammer to be sure it was seated properly and that thing blew off, it went through the roof of the building and landed about 60 feet away out by the fuel pumps.

He never filled another tire without using the proper cage. I had a friend that ran a road service fixing truck flats, he always chained the tires before filling them to keep that lock ring from flying off and hitting him or someone passing by. I never will forget that one going through the roof, it blew off the air hose used to fill it so hard that when it hit my leg it left a mark there for weeks. We were both lucky!

SnowCajun

[huskerbuttons]

I had been a medic for about a yr when we got dispatched out to a construction site for a report of an explosion. We got on scene and found 2 guys unconscious with their clothes blown off. They were fixing a tire on a road grater, using ether, and it blew the ring off. This was a very rural area and the closest hopsital was 1.5 hours away. We flew both of them out. This was the first time I had ever seen Compartment Syndrome. I never knew changing / repairing a tire was so dangerous.

[MedivacRN]

I would guess that it was a locking ring that blew off rather than just an over-inflated tire that exploded.

My uncle was killed from a locking ring blowing off. He was changing the tire on some sort of road grater/earth mover. He was going to prep the land on his farm for a new house for him and his fiance. His son was planning on going over on a Friday to change the tire, but my uncle decided to do it when he got home from work Thursday night.

Apparently, when the locking ring blew off it hit him in the forehead and killed him instantly. He grew up on the family farm and had changed tired like this on tractors his entire life.

They are VERY dangerous tires to changes. You have to put the tire in a special cage that can withstand the force. This is actually somewhat common. OSHA has a lot of information on it.

[RLDS45S]

The only one I was actually party to was side wall blow out, and the patient went across the shop floor over about the width of the service bay. He was cover in shrapnel wounds from the side wall. Pretty interesting....tires have always scared me....and so have oxygen and compressed air tanks.