Super-size equipment helps D.C. area EMTs move the obese - washingtonpost.com

Sales of stretchers designed specifically for very large patients were expected to reach $50 million in 2012, up from $29.6 million in 2004, while sales of specialized lift systems were projected to rise from $75 million to $193 million. The projections were included in a 2007 article for EMS providers written by Raphael M. Barishansky, now chief of public health emergency preparedness for the Prince George's County Health Department.

Reinforced brackets, hydraulic lifts, extensions for belts, harnesses and blood pressure cuffs, and equipment designed so as many as a dozen people at one time can lift a patient are in use in the District and Prince George's, Montgomery and Fairfax counties, as well as many smaller departments. So, too, are cots widened to about 30 inches, which provide increased surface area while still being able to pass through most internal doors.

But those improvements are not enough once a patient reaches about 700 pounds, a group that has become a new focus.