An ambulance cot has a wheeled base and a patient litter. The patient litter includes a pair of hollow, laterally spaced, longitudinally extending side rails, the side rails being configured to extend from a head end to a foot end of the patient litter. At least one retractable, generally U-shaped litter section with at least one hand grip is oriented thereon adjacent a bight portion thereof. The legs of the U-shaped litter section are configured to be slidably received into the interior of the respective longitudinally extending side rails, each of the parallel legs having first and second sections and a hinge configuration interconnecting them. A locking mechanism is provided for releasably locking the first and second sections together so as to prevent relative movement therebetween them and for unlocking the connection so as to permit a relative movement about an axis of the hinge configuration so that when the U-shaped litter section is in an extended position and the latch mechanism is in an unlocked condition, the first and second sections will be moveable with respect to one another to orient the hand grip at a different elevation.