Thomas Stretcher
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The Thomas Stretcher is a British mountain rescue stretcher designed by in the 1930s by a climbing club committee formed to investigate the construction of a stretcher specifically for carrying injured climbers over rough ground.
A Stretcher Committee was formed by the Rucksack Club after a prominent member had severe fall whilst rock climbing. The member was badly injured and had to be transported from the climb on a makeshift stretcher formed from a farm gate in much discomfort,[1] with his leg being later amputated in hospital.
The Joint Stretcher Committee was formed in 1933[1] when the Rucksack Club Stretcher Committee merged with the similar venture of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club. Their requirements[2] were:
- minimum weight.
- quite exceptional strength and rigidity under varied strains.
- provision for the loaded weight to be shared by more than the usual two bearers.
- provision to allow the bearers to walk in file on the level and to advance in line on a steep slope.
- portability (i.e. it should be possible to take the empty stretcher apart in case of need).
- means to hold the patient in position with the least discomfort even when being lowered down a vertical face.
- means to keep his body from contact with the rock under such circumstances.