As part of our CERT training, we’ve asked the local head of EMS to teach us the First Responder class.  The first installment was last night, and we spent a lot of time working on spinal immobilization techniques, such as putting on a cervical collar and getting someone onto a back board. 

During the class I had one of those “Ah Ha!” moments, when it dawned on me that the back board is really just a great honkin’ splint.  The principle behind a splint is that it’s used to immobilize an area of the body by tying the area above and below the injury to the splint.  When you consider a possible spinal injury what areas do we have to work with?  Above the injury is the head, and below is the chest.  So, when you get right down to it, you’re just splinting the potentially injured area.

The fact that the patient is trussed up like a chicken is either a bug or a feature, depending on the patient.