Cut and Run

[oscartony]

I overheard an ambulance driver ask his colleague "cut and run"? as they were about to transport a patient and was closing the rear doors any idea what this means?

[spacechimp]

He may have been asking his colleague whether the injury was the result of a "hit and run" accident.

[oscartony]

they were taking the patient from a house into the waiting ambulance (not a patient transport type, a 999 ambulance)

[spacechimp]

lol, beats me then, I'll google it

[spacechimp]

There could have been a problem in the house which they were abandoning, or maybe they were not going to bother locking the front door.

[bricro]

Cut and run means ..to be off or escape quickly.

Chambers

[Peter Pedant]

My doctor he thay:

you can either cut and run - [or poop and scoop, although that clearly should be scoop and poop] and that means get the hell outa here even though the patient is unstable

or stay and play - put up drip, give oxygen or intubate possibly.

and as the reader can imagine there are advantages to either course of action but also risks.

Watch Trauma, which is an enjoyable mix of staying and playing and pooping and scooping.

Head injuries - you can show a difference in outcome. Pooping and scooping is better

[Buenchico]

'Cut and run' means to leave very quickly. The origin of the phrase lies in naval history. See here:
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:n4bW67Db0REJ:p098.ez board.com/fwordoriginsorgfrm1.showMessage%3FtopicID%3D13 184.topic+%22cut+and+run%22+meaning&hl=en&gl=uk& amp;ct=clnk&cd=5&client=firefox-a

A more modern phrase used by ambulance crews is 'scoop and shoot'. This means that the patient is placed straight into the ambulance and taken immediately to hospital, thus omitting the usual attempt to stabilise the patient's condition prior to getting them into the ambulance.

Chris

[Golem]

I'm a former UK paramedic now working in North America.

The equivalent phrase here is "Load and Go". The definition of 'load and go" patients is;

"Seriously injured multiple trauma patients and patients with isolated major injuries; and non-trauma patients found to have unstable respiratory, circulatory and/or neurologic status or in whom instability is imminent or highly likely on the basis of assessment findings."

Multiple trauma patients need to be in an Operating Theatre as soon as possible to stand any chance of survival - and penetrating trauma e.g. a stab wound to the chest, stands a better chance than blunt trauma, e.g. being hit by a car at speed - so that's never a difficult decision to make. The non-trauma patients with a serious condition are always more challenging and it's a fine line between using the skill sets you have, and driving fast to definitive care at the hospital. For example, I can set up an external pacemaker on a patient at his home who has a very slow heart beat and may be unconscious before taking him to hospital. This will 'stabilise' him enough so that he doesn't die before we get there; however, someone having a stroke needs a fast drive to the ER.

I should add, however, that the fundamental difference between 'stay and play' and 'load and go' is that the procedures you might usually do on scene are done in the back of the ambulance while on route to the hospital in load and go's.