How long should you stabilize the head of a trauma patient manually?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
B. Until it is taken over by a member of medical rescue team.
Explanation
In the photo, a rescuer is kneeling behind the head of a man lying on the ground and holding it still with both hands. If you suspect a cervical spine injury, you stabilise the head by hand until a member of the medical rescue team takes over the stabilisation - answer B. Head movement (A) or leg movement (C) do not prove anything: damage to the spinal cord may happen only with the next movement.
After a car accident, you treat everyone who is unconscious or complains of neck pain as a person with a spinal injury until a doctor rules it out. You kneel behind the head, hold it with your hands on both sides and keep it in line with the body, without pulling or twisting, until the rescuers put on a neck collar. You stop stabilising the head only when you have to start CPR.
Legal basis: Art. 4 of the State Emergency Medical Services Act; Art. 162 of the Criminal Code