By Adam Brandolph
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — When four McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority paramedics were dispatched to the location of a 67-year-old man who was severely short of breath and confused, they found him sweating from his brow and wheezing. His lips were blue.
Paramedics acted quickly, administering life-saving treatment, including placing a breathing tube in his windpipe.
“This was a rather sick person,” said paramedic Mike Hahn, 32, of McCandless. “Time was a factor. Lack of oxygen usually leads to a poor outcome.”
After a few minutes, the “patient” — an advanced simulation mannequin — was saved, and the quick action of Hohn and colleagues Jeremy and Matt Nickl, and Chris Fessides at the McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority won them top honors for the third consecutive year at West Penn Allegheny Health System’s third annual STAR cup competition.
The competition “is a good measure of their competency,” said Josh Franczyk, simulation supervisor for the STAR Center, which sponsored the March 25 and 26 event at Seven Springs Mountain Resort.
“The teams that won managed the protocols the best and quickest,” Franczyk said.
The mannequin, officially named the Laerdal SimMan 3G, is a $100,000 high-tech simulator with the capability to sweat, blink, drool and talk, as well as show hundreds of different heart rates, blood pressures and pulses. The simulator mimics the symptoms of blue lips — a condition called cyanosis — with two blue LEDs beneath his firm plastic lips. Wheezing sounds can be generated from a small speaker inside his mouth cavity.
In this year’s competition, the mannequin was programmed by computer to show acute respiratory failure. The condition allowed the four judges to see how well the medics and EMTs assessed their patient, gathered information and integrated the data for treatment. Points were awarded or subtracted based on questions asked of the patient, actions performed and speed.
“It’s a big plastic dummy,” said David Lindell, EMS program coordinator at Allegheny General Hospital who helped organize the competition. “But what you find is when you get people willing to invest in that roleplay/simulation and suspend any disbelief they have, some of these people come out sweating like they had someone dying in front of them.”
Ross/West View EMS took second place in the competition. Other teams that competed included Butler Ambulance Service, Elizabeth Township Area EMS, Medevac Ambulance of Pittsburgh, Mon Valley EMS and A-K Pulser, the medical response unit from Alle-Kiski Medical Center.
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