Purpose built ambulance

Un f'n believeable!

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-ambulance-for-very-obese-ordered-for-city-87099472.html

Or try this :

TAKE THE DAMN SPOON OUTTA YER MOUTH!

I got no problem with people who have a legitimate medical condition. But because you don't exercise and can't stop eating. It just like smokers who get lung cancer. Pay yer own medical bills.

God help you St Norberter if ever you or a friend or family member finds themselves in that condition...

I dont get it. Does this mean there would now be TWO ambulances and TWO sets of Ambulance personell on site for one patient? ie the first available one shows ups.. realizes it can not handle the patient and calls the second one in?

Or when ordering an ambulance do you now have to say how much you weigh?

St Norberter wrote:Un f'n believeable!
Or try this :

TAKE THE DAMN SPOON OUTTA YER MOUTH!
.

Its definitely a sad state of affairs that there is a rising need everywhere for services such as this. Obesity is a huge problem in our society and most people dont realize just how many dangers it comes with and how it affects their lives.
we have a fairly large number of very obese people where i work, and i dont know if they realize or not that if they had a heart attack, that we would not be able to fit them on our stretcher, or into our ambulance, and would have to wait for a more specialized unit from an outside department, or a forklift or something. scary stuff.

St Norberter wrote:Un f'n believeable!

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-ambulance-for-very-obese-ordered-for-city-87099472.html

Or try this :

TAKE THE DAMN SPOON OUTTA YER MOUTH!

I got no problem with people who have a legitimate medical condition. But because you don't exercise and can't stop eating. It just like smokers who get lung cancer. Pay yer own medical bills.

I know you're an avid cyclist. Ever do any extreme or off-road cycling? Shall we extend the notion that if you are the author of your own fate to that pass time? Say, if you fall down go boom, and breaky a leggy - you get to pay yer own medical bills?

grumpy old man wrote:God help you St Norberter if ever you or a friend or family member finds themselves in that condition...

hehehehehe.....

Pull pin throw grenade, run away!

grumpy old man wrote:

St Norberter wrote:Un f'n believeable!

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-ambulance-for-very-obese-ordered-for-city-87099472.html

Or try this :

TAKE THE DAMN SPOON OUTTA YER MOUTH!

I got no problem with people who have a legitimate medical condition. But because you don't exercise and can't stop eating. It just like smokers who get lung cancer. Pay yer own medical bills.

I know you're an avid cyclist. Ever do any extreme or off-road cycling. Shall we extend the notion that if you are the author of your own fate to that pass time? Say, if you fall down go boom, and breaky a leggy - you get to pay yer own medical bills?

Ahh... but the difference is that the reduced medical bills that come from leading an active lifestyle more than offset any potential medical bills from accidents as a result of healthier lifestyle!

My brother is considered obese, he has been battling weight his entire life. Doesn't make him a bad person. My Dad is a smoker who has probably paid more in taxes then most. I do not believe he should have to pay for his own treatments. Last I looked, cigarettes are legal and so is fast food, chips, pop etc. Make it illegal then. No more McDonalds, BK, Wendy's, Coke, Pepsi and stop selling cigarettes.

There is this movement to 'Large and in charge', 'obese is okay'.

If you want to live that lifestyle, then fine, live that lifestyle. But take responsibility for making that choice. That means if you take two seats on an airplane pay for them. Don't take two seats on a bus. Others shouldn't be inconvenienced by your choice of lifestyle.

Maybe I'm wrong, but directly or indirectly it seems that obesity is becoming one of the main drains on our health care system. Given an aging population, why shouldn't we do as much as we can to eliminate preventable diseases and heath care costs. Ideally, the healthly living minister should command a bigger budget in their department ( proactive) than the health care minister ( reactive).

But spending $125K extra to preserve the dignity of the massivly obese? I think if you are 400 lbs plus, you're probably not worried about your dignity.

St Norberter wrote:Ahh... but the difference is that the reduced medical bills that come from leading an active lifestyle more than offset any potential medical bills from accidents as a result of healthier lifestyle!

That's probably true, but... No way of knowing fer sure. So, extreme activity = no medical coverage.

Goth_chic wrote:My brother is considered obese, he has been battling weight his entire life. Doesn't make him a bad person. My Dad is a smoker who has probably paid more in taxes then most. I do not believe he should have to pay for his own treatments. Last I looked, cigarettes are legal and so is fast food, chips, pop etc. Make it illegal then. No more McDonalds, BK, Wendy's, Coke, Pepsi and stop selling cigarettes.

It's one thing if you are doing something about it or making the attempt to. More power to ya!

But do the increased taxes offset the probable increased medical costs?

St Norberter wrote:

Goth_chic wrote:My brother is considered obese, he has been battling weight his entire life. Doesn't make him a bad person. My Dad is a smoker who has probably paid more in taxes then most. I do not believe he should have to pay for his own treatments. Last I looked, cigarettes are legal and so is fast food, chips, pop etc. Make it illegal then. No more McDonalds, BK, Wendy's, Coke, Pepsi and stop selling cigarettes.

It's one thing if you are doing something about it or making the attempt to. More power to ya!

But do the increased taxes offset the probable increased medical costs?

I would say yes. My Dad has barely used the system until recently. He has and still is paying a ton of taxes as he was making a six figure salary before retirement. Last time I checked cigarettes are legal and still being sold. Alcohol is legal. Until these things become illegal then not much anyone can say or do.

St Norberter wrote:There is this movement to 'Large and in charge', 'obese is okay'.

If you want to live that lifestyle, then fine, live that lifestyle. But take responsibility for making that choice. That means if you take two seats on an airplane pay for them. Don't take two seats on a bus. Others shouldn't be inconvenienced by your choice of lifestyle.

Maybe I'm wrong, but directly or indirectly it seems that obesity is becoming one of the main drains on our health care system. Given an aging population, why shouldn't we do as much as we can to eliminate preventable diseases and heath care costs. Ideally, the healthly living minister should command a bigger budget in their department ( proactive) than the health care minister ( reactive).

But spending $125K extra to preserve the dignity of the massivly obese? I think if you are 400 lbs plus, you're probably not worried about your dignity.

where do you see 125K extra?

"Bariatric ambulances cost $15,000 to $20,000 more than the $110,000 average cost of a regular ambulance, not counting additional medical equipment, he said."

We are adding another ambulance AND adding 20ishK extra to the cost of that ambulance. I am assuming (hopefully rightly) that the ambulance wont just sit in a garage waiting for a fat call. It will instead be in constant use and called as back up for transportation when a fat emergency occours.

St Norberter wrote:

grumpy old man wrote:

St Norberter wrote:Un f'n believeable!

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-ambulance-for-very-obese-ordered-for-city-87099472.html

Or try this :

TAKE THE DAMN SPOON OUTTA YER MOUTH!

I got no problem with people who have a legitimate medical condition. But because you don't exercise and can't stop eating. It just like smokers who get lung cancer. Pay yer own medical bills.

I know you're an avid cyclist. Ever do any extreme or off-road cycling. Shall we extend the notion that if you are the author of your own fate to that pass time? Say, if you fall down go boom, and breaky a leggy - you get to pay yer own medical bills?

Ahh... but the difference is that the reduced medical bills that come from leading an active lifestyle more than offset any potential medical bills from accidents as a result of healthier lifestyle!

But when it comes to your health, you will never know when your number comes up.
I have read stories where people who led perfectly healthy lives dropped dead of a heart attack in their 30's.
And how many people have died from cancer through no fault of their own? (Did not smoke, etc.)
Even kids have died from cancer. Where did they get the time to lead unheathy lives?

Deank wrote:

where do you see 125K extra?

"Bariatric ambulances cost $15,000 to $20,000 more than the $110,000 average cost of a regular ambulance, not counting additional medical equipment, he said."

We are adding another ambulance AND adding 20ishK extra to the cost of that ambulance. I am assuming (hopefully rightly) that the ambulance wont just sit in a garage waiting for a fat call. It will instead be in constant use and called as back up for transportation when a fat emergency occours.

Would they buy the additional ambulance if it wasn't for this reason?

Perhaps instead of spending money to build ambulances for the massively obese, a better way to spend that money would be to develop programs to fight obesity, no?

yes... we are buying ambulances right now to replace older ones. this is just an extra added on feature.

St Norberter wrote:Perhaps instead of spending money to build ambulances for the massively obese, a better way to spend that money would be to develop programs to fight obesity, no?

you mean like say a youth activity centre in downtown winnipeg?

I've had family members die from cancer who never smoked or drank alcohol. Illness can strike anyone at anytime. A few smokers in my family outlived a few who led "healthy" lifestyles. It all depends on your genes.

Deank wrote:yes... we are buying ambulances right now to replace older ones. this is just an extra added on feature.

Okay, I didn't realize that.

Are they at least getting input from the paramedics on what ambulances to buy this time?

LOL, welll... considering the uproar last time I certainly hope so.

Gotta say St Norberter I'm surprised at your hostility in this issue. What's behind it? You have a bad fat experience?

grumpy old man wrote:Gotta say St Norberter I'm surprised at your hostility in this issue. What's behind it? You have a bad fat experience?

We live in a society that is constantly being told that due to an aging population we are going to see rising and rising health care costs. I don;t want to see 80% of my pay go to health care.

So how do we address this? We look at those areas of health care costs that are preventable try and reduce them. I'm not putting this on the same level as FAS, but you get the idea. Instead of spending money to accomodate, spend the money to develop programs and encourage healthy lifestyles so that future health care costs that will occur as a result of obesity will go down, not up!

So be concerned. By all means. But hostile?

i tend to agree with StNorb on this one, though i am probably less hostile
obesity is something that in most cases should be easily preventable, and easily curable/managed. too many people are just lazy or lack the proper education about it and as mentioned, its a rather large drain on our healthcare system that is only going to increase as the years go on.

its not just the fault of individuals though, soceity as a whole is more encouraging of and accepting of obesity and just the nature of the corporations and the entertainment and the sense of entitlement and everything that we have now is just one giant mix that enables this type of lifestyle.

Its a change needed on a huge scale and unfortunately i dont see that happening anytime soon.