Leatherman Raptor

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I met a resident on a rotation last year who had one and loved it. Everyone gave him crap though for it. Looks cool but not something I have 60 bucks to spend on.
 
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If I was a medic...yea, that would be sweet. In the ED, I know I would hand it to someone during a trauma and never see it again. Looks cool, but I'm pretty sure it cuts clothing just like my $4 pair.
 
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These are the best shears I have owned.
They cut WAY better than cheap shears.
The holster is a bit tricky to operate and take on/off a belt, but loosens up a bit with time (I wear pants to work with a scrub top, but I think they would work with scrub bottoms).
They are a bit heavy compared to standard shears.
The ring cutter function is BS and doesn't work well (tested on a key ring), although with the string unwinding method you shouldn't have to cut rings anyway.
I loan them to no one so they don't get lost, but I have engraved my name on the blade.
If you sign up for the Pro section on leatherman's site (emergency services providers qualify), these can be had for $35.
And you get everything else on the site for 50% off.
 
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I agree. If I were still in EMS, these would have been awesome. In the dept, there isn't much of a use for them for a doc since we don't cut seat belts, change o2 tanks, break windows. We don't even cut off the clothes of trauma patients the vast majority of the time. I'll keep my cheapo ones with my name on a chart label on it, for the extremly rare event I need to cut clothes off (outside of a social setting :D).
 
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Highway61 said:
If I was a medic...yea, that would be sweet. In the ED, I know I would hand it to someone during a trauma and never see it again. Looks cool, but I'm pretty sure it cuts clothing just like my $4 pair.
Click to expand...

Having used cheapo trauma shears as a medic and now the Raptors and another awesome sets of shears called Robin Safety Boy shears, I can say that there is a difference. Using either the Raptor or the Safety Boy, I can gather an entire shirt's worth of fabric and cut through it all at once. I can open the shears partway and run up a pant leg without having to 'scissor' it and it slices like buttah. When I get to the top I can cut right through the belt if I wanted to. The nurses all know to keep their fingers and monitor leads away from me when I get to the rescus bay because I get shear-happy.

The Robin shears cut better, but they are huge and kinda heavy, so I used the Raptors folded and in my pocket. If I was working in a trauma center I'd carry the Robin shears tucked into my pants belt.

SafetyShears-Diagram.jpg
 
Im not trying to be mean but it may come off that way.

Why does any ED doc need or want these? If you are doing EMS or something similar ok. But almost every place I work at the techs or nurses do this. I work at a Level 1 trauma center.. I have never needed to cut off the clothes of a patient. I have also never seen the surgeon cut off clothes.
 
EctopicFetus said:
Im not trying to be mean but it may come off that way.

Why does any ED doc need or want these? If you are doing EMS or something similar ok. But almost every place I work at the techs or nurses do this. I work at a Level 1 trauma center.. I have never needed to cut off the clothes of a patient. I have also never seen the surgeon cut off clothes.
Click to expand...
I've use my trauma shears at our level one center enough for me to carry them with me on every shift in our high acuity zone
 
EctopicFetus said:
Im not trying to be mean but it may come off that way.

Why does any ED doc need or want these? If you are doing EMS or something similar ok. But almost every place I work at the techs or nurses do this. I work at a Level 1 trauma center.. I have never needed to cut off the clothes of a patient. I have also never seen the surgeon cut off clothes.
Click to expand...

Need shears at all or *these* shears?

I use shears all the time in my community ED to cut bandages, orthoglass, clothes. The cheap ones die or fail after a time and poke holes in my pocket. These shears fold up and cut very well.

Perhaps it's the old medic in me, but I feel naked without a pair, and now I can afford a higher quality lower profile set.
 
EctopicFetus said:
Im not trying to be mean but it may come off that way.

Why does any ED doc need or want these? If you are doing EMS or something similar ok. But almost every place I work at the techs or nurses do this. I work at a Level 1 trauma center.. I have never needed to cut off the clothes of a patient. I have also never seen the surgeon cut off clothes.
Click to expand...
It's always good to have your own shears just in case.

In regard to the general thread, the Raptor is nice for the ring cutter alone- finding the department ring cutter is always a b***h and when you need it it's never around, or at least it was like that in the L1 where I worked as a tech back in the day.
 
po'boy said he tried the Raptor ring cutter on a keyring and it didn't work to well. I'm not surprised as those are generally a lot tougher than a ring someone wears on their finger. Unless it is a tungsten one ...
 
Meh.. I need shears like once a year.. Our nurses and techs have em.. thats good enough for me.
 
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