From the longest ambulance ride with a patient to the biggest hospital on a ship, here are some EMS events and inventions that broke world records The 2013 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records is set to be released, which got us wondering about record-breaking emergency and medical events and inventions. Here are 10 records that had us amazed: Longest ambulance ride with a patient: The record for the longest ambulance ride with a patient is 2,031 miles achieved by Ambulix Fire & Rescue of Denmark with a Mercedes Benz Sprinter 312 Diesel ambulance from Lisbon, Portugal, to Copenhagen, Denmark, between Oct. 14-16, 2004. The patient was suffering from a head trauma and therefore unable to fly. Longest marathon CPR session, team of two: Two teams of two, consisting of Ray Edensor and Emma Parker and Paul Gauntlett and Mark Brookes, from the Staffordshire Ambulance Service, completed a CPR marathon of 151 hours at a superstore in England Jan. 19-25, 2004. Largest collection of model ambulances: The largest collection of model ambulances is 10,648 and belongs to Siegfried Weinert and Susanne Ottendorfer of Wiener Neudorf, Austria. The couple had originally competed against one another to see who could get the most before deciding to combine their collections to set a record. Largest ambulance: The largest ambulance is operated by the Dubai Government's Centre of Ambulance Services, which measures 65.71 feet and was designed by Dr. Martin von Bergh of Global Medical Consulting, with a total treatment and transport capacity of 123 patients and staff. Largest AED training session: The largest AED training session involved 1,039 participants at an event organized by Southwest Ambulance, Glendale Fire Department, Global Spectrum and Cardiac Science at Cardinals Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on July 29, 2006. Farthest auto accident flight survived: Matt McKnight of the United States was a paramedic helping at an accident scene and was struck by a car travelling at 70 mph. He was thrown 118 feet. He dislocated both his shoulders, suffered a collapsed lung, a thigh ripped open to the bone, a fractured pelvis and legs but made a full recovery and returned to work a year later. Most advanced mini-robot for medical use: In April 2009, a team of scientists at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, announced they had constructed a micro-robot capable of swimming in human arteries. The corkscrew-shaped robot measures a maximum length of 0.00236 in and swims in the same manner as a bacteria. The small robot will be used to repair damage to blood vessels and remove arterial deposits that lead to heart and general health problems. Largest hospital ship: United States Navy Ship Mercy and her sister ship USNS Comfort each have a total patient capacity of 1,000, with 80 intensive care beds and 12 operating rooms, making them the largest floating hospitals in the world. Formerly supertankers, they are 894 feet long, 106 feet across, and have a full load displacement of 62,922 tons. In the wake of the World Trade Center attacks USNS Comfort provided medical support while anchored at docks in Manhattan. Largest medical charity: The Wellcome Trust, established in 1936 as part of the will of Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), has an asset base of $19.46 billion, due to the merger of Wellcome plc with Glaxo in 1995, which left the Wellcome Trust with a 4.7 per cent stake in the new company, Glaxo Wellcome. The Trust has an annual expenditure of $648 million. Greatest payout for personal injury damages to an individual: The greatest personal-injury damages awarded to an individual was $163,882,660, awarded by a jury to Shiyamala Thirunayagam, 27, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on July 27, 1993. She was almost completely paralyzed after the car she was driving hit a truck which had broken down in the fast lane of the New Jersey Turnpike. Because the defendants would have challenged the jury's verdict in a higher court, Thirunayagam agreed to accept a lump sum of $8,230,000 for her pain and suffering and a guarantee that the defendants would pay up to $55,000,000 for her future medical expenses. Source
