“This will really help us out,” Nash said.
“The stair chair aids us in getting people down if they’re up two, three floors, or up, if they’re in a basement.”
She said the portable stair chair has a fold-out track that works fast and effectively and can fit into small areas.
“It will even fit in the hallways of a mobile home,” she said.
“It really increases the safety for both the patient and for us. These stair chairs are really great, because it makes it so that there’s not so much strain and stress on our backs,” she said.
The stair chair also is mechanically easy to use, she said.
“Since it has this track to it, you don’t have to do as much lifting from step to step,” she said. “It just folds out making things so much easier.”
The state grant money is awarded annually from fines collected when drivers receive a ticket for failure to wear a seat belt.
The grant requires recipients to use the funds for nondisposable items. In past years, the department has purchased backboards and oxygen cylinders with the award money.
Nash said the stair chair likely will go into an ambulance at Station 2.
She said the stair chair will cost about $2,500 and that leftover grant dollars will go towards the replacement of other equipment, such as immobilization bags, which are used to carry extra cots, backboards and cervical collars.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-9338 or kmcallister@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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