January 11, 2010
The Rescue Squad's day staff was confronted with an unusual extrication when an auto lost control and became wedged between two concrete slabs as it entered a multi-level office parking garage on Rockledge Drive in Bethesda.
Rescue Squad 741 and Ambulance 726 were dispatched along with Engine 726 for an automobile collision in the parking garage at 6700 Rockledge Drive. The units from Station 26 arrived on scene, reported that they had one person trapped, and requested Medic 741. Reports were that the vehicle suddenly accelerated as it entered the garage and traveled into a parking space in front of the entrance gate. The vehicle’s engine compartment became wedged between the floor of the parking garage where the car entered and the ramp to the floor above, which was also the ceiling of the level below the collision. The front portion of the car, including the wheels, was hanging over another car parked on the floor below. The patient’s hand was pinned between the sedan’s dashboard and its “A” post, which was crushed by the impact of the concrete slab with the base of the windshield.
Rescue Squad 741’s crew used hydraulic spreaders, cutters, and hand tools to remove the driver’s side door, but that did not release the driver’s hand. They then nosed the squad truck into the entrance of the garage so that the squad’s mounted winch could be used to pull the vehicle away from the base of the concrete slab. After moving the car just a few inches, the pressure was released and the patient’s hand was freed. The entire operation took about 20 minutes.
Medic 741 evaluated the patient, bandaged her hand, and, after receiving a radio medical consultation with a Suburban Hospital Emergency Department physician, transported the patient to the hand trauma specialty center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.
Rescue Squad Chief Edward Sherburne also responded on the incident and took command of the operation.
The vehicle also struck the garage’s sprinkler system, causing significant damage, which further complicated the operation. Montgomery County fire marshals and building inspectors arrived on scene to evaluate structural damage but found none.
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