User Tip

This is a trick you can do with blanket rolls. (Photo JEMS)

Blankets to Stabilize Patients in C-Spine

Thom Dick
Feb. 07 JEMS Vol. 32 No. 2
2008 Feb 17

Use a bulky cotton blanket, folded into a width of about 12" and rolled tightly from the ends to comfortably stabilize a patient in C-spine precautions and lying on his side. Here's how it works.

Take the mattress off the ambulance cot and put it on top of the backboard. Stabilize the patient's head manually (with the patient still on his side) and apply a properly sized collar. Extend his right arm under his head. Roll him forward as necessary and then back onto the mattress, with the backboard still beneath it. Turn a pair of those blanket rolls upside-down so the connected side of the rolls is up. Put them on either side of the patient's raised right arm, and place his head on the connected part of the blanket rolls. Strap or duct-tape the patient's body to the board, and fasten his head and the blanket rolls firmly to the board using 2" nylon or cotton medical tape.

Place the patient on the ambulance cot, and run the cot's buckle straps through the backboard's handholds before buckling the patient onto the cot. Bend the patient's right elbow during loading, and take care not to bang his hand and forearm.