Ambulance for the Obese

Britain’s first specially adapted ambulance for carrying obese patients hit the road a few days back and is capable of transporting people weighing more than 400 kg.

South Central Ambulance Service built the vehicle specifically to tackle the demands of a sharp rise in call-outs to overweight patients. Its cavernous interior is more akin to a hospital ward than the back of an ambulance, with room enough for four beds and is fitted with all the latest life-saving equipment.

While a standard ambulance can only carry a person weighing up to 120 kg, the adapted mini-truck can carry patients as heavy as 250kg stone including their trolley. The vehicle can take a single person weighing up to 420 kg as well as the ambulance's two dedicated members of support staff.
Its most significant modification is a heavy-duty tail lift which can be lowered to the ground allowing even the heaviest patients to be raised into the ambulance at the push of a button.
James Keating-Wilkes, a spokesman for the trust, said it had resolved to create the ambulance after a rise in injuries sustained by staff trying to lift obese patients into ordinary ambulances.He said: “In recent years we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of calls to transport obese patients to hospital. We also struggled in many situations because our ambulances were not capable of carrying some very heavy patients and there were also a lot of injuries sustained trying to lift them.
He added that trust already owned the vehicle – originally intended to transport emergency heart patients – but decided to modify it at a cost of £5,000 as it was rarely being used.
As it is capable of carrying up to four ordinary sized patients, the vehicle can also now be used for attending major incidents where there are multiple casualties.

Marine Security

The US Navy says dolphins and sea lions will stand guard this year at a submarine base to detect any underwater swimmers who might approach the base on Hood Canal.The US Navy is keeping security details secret, but the environmental impact statement for the project said there would be fewer than 20 animals kept in heated enclosures when not on patrol in Washington state. 
Marine mammals have been used as guards for years at another Trident submarine base at King's Bay, Georgia. Navy spokesman Tom LaPuzza in San Diego told the Kitsap Sun that Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions are ready to go on patrol at Bangor. The dolphins can find an intruder and release a beacon. Sea lions can attach a cuff to a swimmer's leg.

 

Criminal Snoopy

A man tried to break into prison to free an inmate while dressed as the cartoon character Snoopy. Prison wardens were baffled when they were confronted by the character from the Peanuts cartoon trying to break down a staff door while apparently waving a gun. The man and an accomplice, who were attempting to free a relative from HMP Isle of Wight ,Britain, went on to hurl concrete missiles at prison officers’ cars.
A prison source told The Sun: “It’s not every day you see a giant cartoon dog go on the rampage after trying to break into a prison. They weren’t exactly inconspicuous but they were taken seriously because they appeared to have a gun. They caused a real commotion and it was only later they were found to be armed with a water pistol.”
It emerged after the pair were arrested that they had attempted to break into the wrong prison. They had staged the attempted jail-break at the Isle of Wight’s Albany site, while the relative they were looking for was locked up in the nearby Cramp Hill unit.
The source added: “This has got to rank as one of the worst attempted jail breaks ever.”
A spokesman for Hampshire Police said two men, aged 43 and 21, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and held under the Mental Health Act after the incident on May 1.
It is not clear which of the two men was dressed as Snoopy.

Im-mobile house

A man makes his car his permanent home when it breaks down in the middle of te Arabian Desert.
Saad al-Qahtani was driving in the western Saudi desert between Mecca and Jeddah one day 18 years ago when his beloved Chevrolet Suburban broke down. He couldn’t fix it, so he did the next best thing: he stayed there and made it his home. The 61-year-old man’s parents and sisters had all passed away by that time, according to the Saudi Gazette on Saturday. He had lost his security guard job for health reasons, tried cattle ranching but the livestock all went missing, so he began driving on odd jobs in the area until the fateful day when the huge SUV gave in. Instead of calling a mechanic, he decided to make it his permanent home.


No need to make such a decision when your car breaks down and no mechanic is near, use Smartworks 33 Piece Emergency Roadside Toolkit from Amazon.com

Junior Voter

A 14 year old boy, named locally as Alfie McKenzie of Carleton near Pulton, Lancs, managed to evade basic checks to cast a vote in the Wyre and Preston North Constituency during the 2010 General Elections in Britain. The legal voting age is currently 18.

It came on the night in which hundreds of adults were denied the chance to vote by long queues at polling stations.
Alfie, who stood as a candidate in his school election before defying taking part in the real thing, was questioned by police over the breach.

His mother, Nadine, said:"Alfie is sorry is he has caused any mayhem- he loves his politics and I am sure just wanted to be part of the Election process. Sadly at 14 that cannot be done."
Lancashire Police were called in to investigate after a tip off. Jim Corry, chief executive of Wyre Borough Council, confirmed that an under-age voter had taken part in the poll.
But police stressed that the breach had no effect on the results for the seat, which was held by Tory Ben Wallace with a large majority.