Texas Trooper Needed a Knife!

B

bruce

Joined
Dec 4, 1998
Messages
1,347
A TV news segment this morning detailed a Texas State Trooper, Robert Turner I believe, who stopped a van for speeding, but was interrupted by a blaring horn. The horn came from a car that stopped behind his patrol car because it contained a woman in labor and starting to deliver. The trooper rushed to her aid and assisted the birth but found complications. The umbilical cord was around the baby's neck and it (I didn't get the gender of the baby) wasn't breathing. The trooper knew he needed to cut and remove the cord from the baby's neck to help restore breathing. "BUT HE DIDN'T HAVE A KNIFE!" He called to the occupants in the van he originally stopped, and you could hear him yelling to them to find him a knife! Finally someone gave him one, he cut the cord, restored breathing, and all are well.

What was this trooper going to use to cut seatbelts in the next accident he came upon! In this age of political correctness, the lack of a knife may cost a life!

Bruce Woodbury
 
Yeah, but what kind of knife was it?
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Protect your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!
The only Spark Jr. around here is Ewok - he's the only guy... crass enough for the job....
Spark
 
I don't know what kind of knife it was, but I'll bet it had a cord wrapped handle!!
(groan, catcalls, thrown objects from other forumites).
The Poster Formerly Known As Whacko... Walt
 
WOW, that is a story that made me personally disapointed with cops all over the world. If you are a cop and dont have a knife., then I think that you are not really doing your job. THATS just my opinion. and a suggestion would be probally the new MASTER OF DEFENSE knife that was shown in the new BLADE magazine...
 
Good one Walt!
Did ya hear the one about the Bell Ringer with no arms?
 
As a Texan I was deeply disappointed when I heard that story. We have a reputation to uphold. Can you imagine Jim Bowie having to yell "Hey, somebody bring me a knife".
smile.gif


Jack



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Two degrees in be-bop, a Ph.D in swing, he's a master of rhythm, he's a rock and roll king.
 
As a (displaced) Texan, I too am saddened by this trooper's lack of preparation. The funny thing is that the Texas Highway Patrol troopers think of themselves as the cream of the crop in Texas law enforcement.
Even sadder is the fact that a knife isn't even needed in this situation, so I guess the state doesn't train their troopers in first aid as well as they should.

Phil Reedy
 
A TEXAS State Trooper? Shame on him!
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This story is a little too close to home since my Mrs. Labrat is expecting any day now. The last night she had me read how to deliver a baby in the car on the way to the hospital - just in case. My first thought was what kind of knife I should carry to cut the cord, but later I read that it is best not to cut it. Just get to the hospital quickly - Darn!! I guess if a DPS officer does stop to help me he can have his choice of several knives that I'm sure to be carrying.

That sounds like a good topic by itself: What kind of knife should you use to cut the umbellical cord in an emergency delivery? Kind of reminds me of that emergency circumcision thread some time ago.

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He who laughs last is at 300 baud :>
 
Hey LabRat,

Since you asked...... It is true that you shouldn't cut the cord in an emergency delivery. The cord needs to be clamped in two places before it is cut. Remember that the cord is still attached to the placenta, and the placenta is still attached to the mom for a short while. Keeping the cord attached to the placenta is also helpful when delivering the placenta, as it will oftentimes need some traction to come out. You could reach up in there and pull it out, but I can guarantee you that the mom won't like your hand up in her uterus.

Aaanyway, I could give you some instructions as to what to do in this kind of situation, but this really isn't the format to do so, especially in today's litigous society. If someone really wants to know this sort of thing, they should find an advanced First Aid course. I will say however to remember that a cord wrapped around the neck is just a loop, and not a knot. It the vast majority of cases it does not need to be cut, but only needs to be unlooped.

have fun,
Phil Reedy
 
As a law enforcement officer who is less than 40 miles from Texas, lemme clear up a misconception. I have been a cop for the last 2 years, and have been to probably 30 car accidents were where the car was bad and the victim was trapped and injured. In EVERY one we were able to get the seatbelt off by pushing the little button designed to release the belt. In my area (290 officers from several agencies, not including Feds), no one can recall hearing of anyone who had to cut a seat belt to get at someone.

In my agency, a knife is considered a defensive tool and is intended to be used as such (our academy has implimented a 30 hour edged weapons course).

Of course the knives are also used to cut evidence bags, boxes, and tags, remove staples from citation books, cut screens for forceable entry, shim locks, open packages, envelopes, and boxes, as a poor officer's paper shredder, and once to flatten a tire on a drunk that wanted to run while officers were at the car.

pat
 
oops, double post

pat

[This message has been edited by lc609 (edited 02-06-2000).]
 
Cops and EMTs and even a couple of forum members who have gotten into accidents cut seat belts even though the latch might have functioned perfectly well just because when you're trying to get injured people out of an upside-down car or even worse you're injured and you're trying to get yourself and your family out of an upside-down car before it bursts into flames the last thing you want to do is go groping around them trying to find the buttons....

I agree there was no need to cut the cord in this case but ... I'm appalled at the idea of any cop on duty without a knife. In fact I'm pretty appalled at the idea of any adult male running around without a knife ... and I would be appalled at adult women running around without knives if it weren't so damn common ... so many women think there'll always be a man handy to borrow a knife from....

IMHO anyone who has to ask to borrow a knife ought to be damn embarrassed about it ... like a schoolkid who forgot his pencil and has to borrow from the teacher ... okay, kids forget things, especially young kids -- but grownups ought to have some sense of responsibility! A grown-up ought to have a pen and a knife and a handkerchief and some pocket money with him -- he shouldn't have to depend on bumming the essentials of life from other people to survive! How about some grown-up self-reliance??? There isn't always going to be someone there to beg a tissue from when you need to blow your nose, dammit, and if there is why should they have to take care of you??? By the time you're old enough to be allowed to leave the house without your mommy you ought to have a little foresight and a little self-respect, too much self-respect to depend on begging other people to help you like a child!



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-Cougar Allen :{)
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This post is not merely the author's opinions; it is the trrrrrruth. This post is intended to cause dissension and unrest and upset people, and ultimately drive them mad. Please do not misinterpret my intentions in posting this.
 
Great thread
But I have difficulty in imagining the scenario outlined by ic609 where the LEOs felt obliged to disable a fleeing auto by stabbing the tyre (Ozspell) with a knife.
Sounds dangerous : the car is about to take off (probably with spinning tyres) and you are hanging onto the handle of a knife protruding from a tyre. Couple of gunshots would have been safer ???
Guess you had to be there.



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BrianWE

Believe me....being this old and having to live with all this experience is not the picnic I thought it was going to be.
 
Since I started this thread, I figured I better end it. TOP THIS STORY! Before my sister became an RN, she was an EMT. She told the story to us this way, "While responding to an automobile accident, the male victim was found be not breathing because of a crushed larynx. My partner and I radioed the on-call doctor who gave us permission to perform an emergency episiotomy!" When she told me this story I near doubled over in perceived pain trying to understand how this could help!

Later, in her RN training she learned to distinguish between an episiotomy and a tracheotomy. BTW, they really did make an incision in the guy's throat and not somewhere else!

Bruce Woodbury
 
Good post, Bruce.
But, see.......just because you start a thread doesn't mean you can end it. But you DID top it, mate.



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BrianWE

Believe me....being this old and having to live with all this experience is not the picnic I thought it was going to be.
 
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