Stretcher
A stretcher may be improvised in one of the following ways: (a) A shutter, door, or gate covered well with straw, hay, clothing, or burlap bagging.
(b) A piece of carpet, blanket, sacking, tarlatan, spread out, and two stout poles rolled up in the sides. Put clothes for a pillow.
(c) A coat with the two sleeves turned inside out; pass two poles through the sleeves, button the coat over them. (See illustration.) Patient sits on coat and rests against the back of the first bearer.
(d) Two poles passed through a couple of bags, through holes at bottom corners of each.
[Illustration: Coat Stretcher]
Carry a patient by walking out of step, and take short paces, about 18 inches apart. Usually carry the patient feet first, but in going up hill the position is reversed, and the patient is carried head first.
[Illustration: Life Saving Patrol]
The following illustrations explain the process of carrying a patient without a stretcher:
[Illustration: Three and four handed carry.]