How to Use a Splint on a Long Bone Fracture

Video Transcript

"My name is Alv Rios and I am a paramedic with Lansing Mercy Ambulance on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip we are going to go over long bone fractures. This is my partner Jacob Barbor, he's also a paramedic working for Lansing Mercy Ambulance Service on behalf of Expert Village and he is going to be assisting us in this. In this clip we are going to say that he has a fracture to his right elbow. So first thing you want to do is as we talked about earlier you want to go ahead and immobilize the limb keep it form moving. You want to check for a pulse. Can you wiggle your fingers for me? And without looking at me which finger am I touching? Ring finger alright. What you want to do is now turn this over to someone that can help immobilize this and keep it in the position that you found it in. You then want to select an appropriate size splint. Because the fracture is to the elbow we are going to choose to use an arm splint like this cause what we have to do is immobilize both the lower and upper arm. So while my partner would still be stabilizing the arm you want to work together to move the splint into position. Make sure you pad any voids that you have. Sometimes there is a little space below the elbow. If you have to put a little bit of a towel under there. What you now want to start doing is start securing the splint. You want to make sure you have it in a tight position, however not enough to start putting any pressure on the injury site. I am going to avoid putting this strap on because that is going right over the actual injury site. Once I have the splint in place I want to make sure that I have left myself enough room to be able to check for a pulse again. Can you wiggle your fingers for me? And which finger am I touching? Alright you now have the limb immobilized you can now put it in a position of comfort for the patient and be careful not to cause any excessive movement. This should now reduce blood flow and pain to the patient."