Design of Rapid Medical Evacuation System for Trauma Patients Resulting from Biological and Chemical Terrorist Attacks

In the event of a large scale, biological or chemical terrorist attack it is unlikely that local emergency response organizations will have sufficient quantities of dedicated ambulances to evacuate all of the affected victims. As a potential solution to this problem, we have developed a device that can be retrofitted to a variety of government or civilian utility vehicles in order to convert them for emergency medical transport (US Pat. 7,028,351). Each installed device allows the host vehicle to safely transport either a single patient on a stretcher or multiple ambulatory patients. Additionally, each device provides a means for temporary or permanent attachment of emergency medical equipment. When not in use, the device can be collapsed to improve ease and efficiency of storage. Preliminary analyses of certain highly loaded structures on the device were carried out using known principles of solid mechanics. The analyses were carried out assuming the highest reasonable loading condition. This condition was determined to occur when the device is configured for the transport three 95^th percentile males and 20 kg of medical equipment. This loading condition was assumed to be more severe than any that might occur due to an attendant performing CPR, or any other medical procedures, on a single supine patient. The base sections of the load bearing stretcher supports were then modeled using 3D CAD software and run through a finite element analysis (FEA) as a means to more accurately simulate the stresses that are likely to occur in the actual parts. As the device must be highly mobile, these analyses were used to confirm that the load bearing structures can be manufactured from low cost materials and still be light enough to be easily transported. Future work will include sizing and installation studies to ensure that the production version of the device can be rapidly implemented in a wide variety of private, commercial, and government utility vehicles