Medicine: First Aid to Spines

The special specialty of Dr. Byron Polk Stookey, Manhattan surgeon who fortnight ago suggested that gasoline filling stations be equipped as first-aid stations for highway accidents (TIME, Nov. 9), is surgery of the brain and spinal cord. To Neurosurgeon Stookey has come many a case of paralysis rendered incurable by ignorant handling of the patient at the scene of the accident. Hoping to prevent such needless damage. Dr. Stookey this week issued new pictures (see cuts) and advice which first-aid manuals, including that of the Boy Scouts, lack.

First, advised Dr. Stookey, “never lift the head of an injured person until he has told you whether he can move his legs or hands. If he cannot move his legs, his back is broken. If he cannot move his hands, his neck is broken. In both cases the spinal cord is injured. If you lift his head to give him a drink of water or if you fold him up to carry him, you inevitably grind the injured spinal cord between parts of the broken vertebrae and destroy any useful remnant of the cord which may have escaped injury in the original accident.”

When the back is broken, first-aiders “should gently roll the victim on to a blanket so that he rests face downward. When the blanket is lifted, the victim’s back sags, thus making him sway-back and removing pressure from the spinal cord.”

When the neck is broken, first-aiders “should gently roll the victim on a plank so that he rests face upward, and under no circumstances with the head tilted forward. This is the best position to prevent movement of the fractured cervical vertebrae.”

If the victim must be carried by hand, four first-aiders “should form a team—one at the victim’s head, another at his feet, the others at each hip. While those at the hips lift and carry, the others gently pull and carry. The traction at head and feet holds the vertebrae apart and prevents them from grinding against the injured cord.”

When the victim is unconscious, “handle him as though his neck or back were broken.”