Germany, 08/31/09, MVA, person trapped under open driver door

[Guest]

4:50 am on a very cold sunday we were dispatched to a MVA. The 43yo male were driving drunk and tried to end his life with running with his VW Golf 5 against a tree. He did not wear his seatbelt. Dont know how but when we arrived the was lying in prone position out of his car at drivers side, his femoral was trapped under the door. FF were alerted but not at scene yet. He was concious and told me he tried to kill himself. He suffered NO head injuries, NO spine injuries, just a broken breastbone and his right femoral. He had heavy pain and difficulty in breathing. After he was rid of the door we put him on a spineboard and transported him to our ambulance. After a full body check and still problems with breathing we made a general anaestethic and intubated him. He was driven to a trauma center and still lying on ICU. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Andy

pics taken by our VFD

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I actually had a similar occurrence a couple years ago however my patient wasn't trapped and it wasn't due to a MVA.

Had a male adult patient whom while exiting car (a manual transmission) the vehicle started to roll backwards. He unsuccessfully attempted to get back into the car and while also attempting to stop the vehicle by the open drivers door. He stumbled and when he hit the ground the door actually rolled him as he went underneath the door (this was not an average size adult male and the car was a standard sedan design with only about 6" of clearance from bottom of the door to the ground). He was complaining of severe back pain upon arrival and all spinal precautions were taken. In fact he ended up with 2 fractured Lumbar vertebrae.

Thanks for sharing your experience and posting the photos.