Control the environment and you control the outcome

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer

SCENARIO A

You and your search and rescue team have finally located the lost hiker deep in the back country. It’s been a long and challenging search on a cold and windy October day.

Your hiker has a broken leg and is already showing early signs and symptoms of hypothermia. Extracting the patient is going to be a lengthy process, whether it’s hiking out with him by litter or getting him to an acceptable landing site for a medevac helicopter extraction.

You’d likely be in a much better position to provide patient care if part of your equipment cache that you brought with you was the RIGLOO Emergency Medical Search & Rescue Shelter.

Hg and can be inflated in approximately 20 seconds using compressed air or other medical gases through its built-in Schrader valve. It also has a pressure relief valve and 2 additional backup

The RIGLOO Emergency Medical Search & Rescue Shelter (Think RESCUE IGLOO because that’s how its developer, Raymie Rodgers, came up with the name!) is a lightweight, rapidly deployable shelter.

The RIGLOO is supported by a TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane resin) airframe that’s wrapped in a protective sleeve. When inflated, the frame is super strong enabling caregivers to hang IV bags and portable lighting from connectors. And it can withstand the prop-wash of a decent size helicopter!

The RIGLOO’s design features a zipped entrance at either end with a door that can be rolled up and securely tied if necessary. An easily detachable floor gives you the capability to place the RIGLOO over your patient without having to move them!

The RIGLOO is equipped with two clear TPU windows (look at these guys for any queries regarding this) on each side and one on each door to allow exterior light into the shelter and enable the caregiver to see what’s happening outside. Also included is mosquito netting for the doors (2^nd roll-up door panel). Additional accessories can be added to suit the specific needs of your organization or agency.

The RIGLOO fits in a convenient and easily stored backpack, 55cm (22-in.) high x 30 cm (12-in.) wide x 20cm (8-in.) deep.

After use, the RIGLOO can be deflated in seconds, rolled up, taken back to the station, and cleaned and decontaminated before placing it back in the bag (The RIGLOO is constructed using Polyester Ripstop® 210T so you can safely use your organization’s approved cleaning agents without damaging the RIGLOO).

SCENARIO B

You respond to a reported motor vehicle crash where you arrived to find that a car has struck young girl riding her bicycle.

Your “eyeball assessment” as you approached the girl lying in the street tells you “This is not good.” Your trauma assessment reveals that she’s having great difficulty breathing, so you open her blouse to better examine her airway and chest wall. Your findings indicate possible rib fractures that are adversely affecting her chest wall’s movement, hence her difficulty breathing.

The RIGLOO is big enough (1.2m (4-ft.) x 1.6m (5-ft.) x 2.6m (8.5-ft.) to accommodate and protect an adult patient while providing ample working space for their caregivers and their medical equipment (That’s 6.6 cubic m (212 cubic ft. of interior space!).

Then you look up and see that a small crowd has gathered with seemingly everyone holding up their phone, taking pictures or video of what’s happening exclamation! How can you possibly protect the young girl’s modesty and privacy while you render the appropriate aid, the lifesaving care she needs before you can even think about moving her to your ambulance?

As in SCENARIO A, you’d not have such a dilemma if you had the RIGLOO Emergency Medical Search & Rescue Shelter available on your ambulance for rapid deployment. With the RIGLOO, you’d have the right tool for the job.

I’m betting that, after reading these two scenarios, you’ve already recalled several past medical responses from your memory bank where having a RIGLOO available would have had a significant positive influence on the patient care outcome. Am I right?

And another great factor is that the storage size and cost of a RIGLOO means that your organization or agency can place a RIGLOO on every vehicle in your fleet so that its protective capabilities are always readily available.

At 7.5kg (16.5 lbs.) there’s no reason why the RIGLOO can’t go anywhere you have to go to reach your patient.

Going back to our first scenario, you could even have the medevac helicopter drop a RIGLOO near the site of you and your injured hiker if you didn’t hike it in with you.

Just imagine the positive impact that would have had on your patient’s condition and your ability to provide them with the best care possible? (Because who doesn’t dread the thought of trying to establish IV access in a patient whose vascular system is shutting down from hypothermia while their own hands are shaking from the cold?).

With the RIGLOO at your disposal, you control the environment, allowing you to control the outcome!

For commercial inquiries, contact RIGLOO at [email protected]