Suspension trauma occurs when the worker remains suspended in his harness for a long time.
Suspension trauma occurs when the worker remains suspended in his harness for a long time. His blood collects in his legs and at the same time deprives the brain of blood flow and oxygen, vital to its proper functioning. According to several studies, the worker's suspension time is 10 to 20 minutes depending on his physical condition, after which irreversible damage can occur, even death.
Although new to construction (around 20 years), the suspension trauma has existed for a very long time. The Romans crucified their criminals or victims by hanging them on a cross until death; their blood accumulated in their legs and deprived the brain of the precious liquid. In military parades, soldiers who stand at attention for a long time may lose unconsciousness and fall to the ground. I always thought the cause was partying too much the night before and because of being weak, he passed out for a few seconds and when he stood up, found all the spectators were laughing at him. But the truth is quite different. The soldier had been standing too long without moving; the blood accumulated in his legs and he passed out from a lack of oxygen to the brain. The human body being a complex machine, it made our soldier pass out and by falling horizontally, returned the blood to his heart, which then pushed it to the brain, which awakened the soldier.
When you fall in a harness, you stay upright, so the blood cannot go up to the brain, which is why it is important to have a rescue plan that will be quickly executed. The heart, by its configuration, cannot pull, it can only push. It pushes the blood in our legs to the toes. From there, the pressure forces it go up, but since the heart does not pull, it is the moving muscles which acts as a pump and brings most of the blood from the legs to our heart, which in turn, pushes it to the brain. To add precious minutes to our worker, if he is conscious, we can either ask him to sit in his harness and move his legs using his hands, we can also place an object (a 2 x 4, an iron rod, etc.) under his feet and ask him to move his legs which will cause the blood to rise to the heart and remove pressure in the groin.
