RexONE Rapid Extraction Device: Simple and Practical

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by Steven Ray, EMSCI #349-B
Fort Bend County (TX) EMS

Fort Bend County EMS is located in the Southwest region of the Greater Houston area and provides patient care for approximately 886 square miles. Daily operations are carried out by three Battalion Chiefs, 16 dual Paramedic Mobile Intensive Care Units, and three single Paramedic Squad Units. Responses were a little more than 30,000 calls in 2019. Fort Bend County is unique because not only is it the most diverse county in the nation, it is also one of the fastest growing counties, with a population of nearly one million.

A certain percentage of our response is to rural areas such as farmland and river beds, as well as to congested pathways during events, so we are always looking for innovative specialty equipment to make access for temporary transport platforms feasible.

You could purchase an EMS-specific UTV (utility task vehicle, also known as a side-by-side), but then you have to add maintenance fees, specialty training, and a means of transporting such a piece of equipment in an emergency. Maybe you could even think about purchasing a wheeled Stokes basket (transport litter), but then you would have to store it in your response vehicle… and we all know those have an abundant amount of extra free space, right?

I had the pleasure of communicating with Linda Morin of Rex EMS, makers of the RexOne Rapid Extraction device, after seeing it on display during the 2019 IPMBA Conference. She kindly afforded Fort Bend County EMS the opportunity to field trial the system, just as the date of our county parade and rodeo was approaching.

It was a perfect time to field trial such a unique piece of equipment as the parade route is roughly 4.5 miles in length and stretches through two cities, and the rodeo operates over a two-week period.

I was concerned about the size of the RexONE system as it is the length of a full-size EMS stretcher once it is assembled. To my surprise, the entire system, including the bicycle frame attachment, came in a back-pack style carrying case approximately the size of a large square duffel bag.

Any individual who operates an EMS stretcher would have no issues deploying the RexONE in a timely manner. The system deployed without instructions within seconds. There are foolproof, color-coded labels where the tire fenders attach and where the wheels attach to both sides of the frame. If you are utilizing the system without a bicycle, the handle adjusts to the height of the rescuer. If you plan to attach it to a bicycle, there is a simple quick-release pin that attaches the bicycle mount.

When a patient is loaded, the location of the wheels places perfect counter balance to keep the weight of the gear or patient more on the system itself rather then on the cyclist or to the rescuer handling it.

The danger is that the entire RexONE system is so light that you forget it is even behind you. It also rides so low that inattentive pedestrians, particularly in crowds, could easily trip over it.

The RexONE does have some room for improvement. For instance, I would add a little bit of padding on top of the frame for patient comfort and place reflective striping and/or active lighting to the rear to use as daytime running lights and in low light environments. I’m going to add that to my project list.

Overall, the RexONE receives “two thumbs up” from both me and my agency for its simplicity and feasibility. The system does everything our agency asked for and will make event operations easier than ever. If you currently have a bike unit and are looking for a bike-mounted piece of equipment to make patient transport simple, this is the resource to have!

Steven began his fire/EMS career in 2006, when he joined Klein Fire Department as a firefighter. In 2008 he became a member of Cypress Creek EMS in Spring, Texas. While serving on their bike team, he attended the IPMBA EMS Cyclist Course, the Bicycle Response Team Training, the Instructor Course, and the BRT Instructor Seminar. He attended the Maintenance Officer Course at the 2016 IPMBA Conference in Asheville, North Carolina, and taught at the 2018 and 2019 IPMBA Conferences. Steven transferred to Fort Bend County EMS as a Paramedic. He serves as Assistant Team Leader of their Bike Unit and as a Paramedic on the Tactical Team. Steven has been an IPMBA member since 2011 and an instructor since 2012.

Photo courtesy Fort Bend County EMS.

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