Of the currently existing rescue stretchers currently on the market, all are built for independent and specific use at the time of rescue. An example is hard rescue stretchers, where a victim is moved onto the hard stretcher until they are transferred to another stretcher, or flexible rescue stretchers, which are built for rescue in places that are difficult to access, and for difficult maneuvers such as vertical rescue operations. The victim and/or individual is always carried upon either a hard or a flexible stretcher, and must be transferred and moved from one type of stretcher to the other if and when needed. The system of the present invention as applied to flexible stretchers for fixing to hard stretchers is innovative, as it makes movement of an individual from one type of stretcher to another unnecessary, by affixing the hard stretcher to a flexible stretcher.
Currently existing flexible stretchers fulfill only one function attributed to them, without extensions or other facilities aggregated to them. Hard stretchers are used almost exclusively in land operations, while flexible stretchers are used for places of difficult access and for vertical rescue operations. When the rescue of an individual is performed first using a hard stretcher, if there is a need to move the individual to a more flexible stretcher, due to, for example, difficulties extracting the individual, the individual is transferred from one type of stretcher or equipment to the other, increasing their risk of injury, as well as impairing the agility and endangering the safety of the persons facilitating the rescue.
As described above, there remains a lack of efficient solutions for the transport of victims and/or individuals within a complex field setting, due to the differences in parts between the various types of equipment used, as well as the requirements for transfer and/or movement of individuals when there is a need to transition between various types of rescue means. What is needed therefore, is a system that allows for an easy transition between hard and flexible stretchers, such as is described in the present invention, to enable the optimizing of handling of individuals in emergency situations, especially in situations where the handling is done outside of a hospital or controlled setting, by people such as paramedics.