HEAD AND NECK INJURIES - Medicine for Mountaineering and Other Wilderness Activities - page 113

spinal cord may paralyze the urinary bladder and large intestine. Bladder care may require
repeated catheterizations at least every eight hours or the insertion of an indwelling cathet-
er.
Figure 8-4. Logroll carry of a person suspected of having a vertebral fracture
Figure 8-5. Technique for immobilizing the head of a subject with fractured cervical vertebrae
The American Red Cross recommends that amateurs not try to evacuate a person
thought to have a vertebral fracture. Transportation must be postponed until cervical col-
lars, body boards, basket stretchers, and appropriately trained emergency medical techni-
cians have been brought to the scene of the accident. Within industrialized nations such
advice is excellent and should be followed if at all possible. However, in much of the rest
oftheworldemergencymedicaltechniciansandthenecessaryequipmentarenotavailable.
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REFERENCES
1 . Adaptedfrom Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary ,26thed.Philadelphia,W.B.
Saunders, 1981.