To facilitate the transport of morbidly obese patients in Boston, Emergency Medical Services will start an ambulance fitted with a hydraulic lift this month costing nearly $12,000.

The starting of such an ambulance, which looks more like a truck, would also be beneficial for emergency medical technicians and paramedics who often receive injuries while lifting extremely obese patients. There will also be a stretcher worth $8,000 in the ambulance to carry even a person weighing 850 pounds.

Jose A. Archila, a Boston EMS captain stated that it was not difficult to hoist a 300 or even 400 pound patient, but lifting up a 500-, 600-, 700-pound patient was a great task.

There are already available bigger beds, wheelchairs and hallways in many of Boston's hospitals to serve people with extreme weight. The proportion of extremely overweight people in the US has surged 75% from 2000 to 2005.

Autotronics has modified the ambulance and its President expressed that they didn't know whether any agencies in Massachusetts had even retrofitted an ambulance with a hydraulic lift.

The redesigned ambulance will be housed at the Boston EMS special operations barn in Roxbury and would be sent off after a call at 911 asking for a special vehicle.