A water rescue team in Hainan told us they used to run two different stretchers on their boat: a stainless steel basket for land extraction and a separate flotation device for water recovery. The problem was that transitions between the two at the shoreline cost them minutes they didn’t have. The AM-BS005 eliminates that handoff. It’s a full basket stretcher made from molded polyethylene—the same material used in whitewater kayaks—so it floats right out of the water with a patient secured inside. At 12.6 kg, it’s roughly half the weight of a comparable stainless steel basket, which matters when your extraction route involves a fifty-meter swim followed by a cliff scramble.
The closed cage design is a single-piece polyethylene shell with integrated drain holes and molded handgrips at six positions. Unlike steel baskets, there are no welded joints to crack under impact or saltwater to corrode. The polyethylene body is UV-stabilized, so it won’t become brittle after a season of sun exposure on the deck of a rescue boat. Load capacity is 159 kg—sufficient for an adult patient with wet gear and a spinal board inside.
We put the BS005 through salt spray testing equivalent to five years of coastal deployment. No rust, no delamination, no structural degradation. The strap points are molded into the shell rather than bolted on, so there are no metal inserts to seize up in marine environments. It’s compatible with standard basket stretcher accessories including four-point lifting bridles and spine board restraint systems.
This model is also popular with swift-water rescue teams, flood response units, and any operation where the patient might enter the water before or during extraction. The buoyancy is inherent to the material—there are no air bladders to puncture or refill. Even if the shell takes damage that would sink an inflatable, the polyethylene’s positive buoyancy keeps the stretcher at the surface. In practical terms, a properly secured adult patient will float with their head and shoulders above the waterline, which is exactly what you want during a shoreline handoff where the rescue swimmer needs to release the patient to the shore team without submerging them.
It’s not the stretcher for a road ambulance—that’s what our stainless steel baskets are for. But if your rescue scenarios involve rivers, lakes, harbors, or flood zones, the BS005 is the one you want on the boat. I stock these in Shanghai year-round. If you’re outfitting a water rescue unit or replacing salt-damaged steel stretchers, let’s talk about your operational requirements—I’ll help you get the right model, even if it’s not this one.
