By Janice Neumann
Chicago Tribune
OAK LAWN, Ill. — A 35-year-old man who lay moaning on an emergency room bed had just been rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn after receiving an electric shock from a high power line.
Dr. Andrew Nelson discussed his injuries with several physicians as the heart monitor beeped and other staff scurried about Tuesday morning. But despite the air of urgency, nothing about the case was real.
It was all a carefully crafted act — for training purposes — at the hospital’s new Simulation Learning Center, and the role of patient was played by a life-size mannequin.
The facility, the first medical simulation center to open in the south suburbs, has three hospital beds, medical equipment and five mannequins specially designed for medical training, with computerized heart rates, pulses and voices that can moan and make other sounds.
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago opened the first center in the region in 2002, followed by at least three other hospitals, where the facilities have become important teaching tools.
“A resident will have a hard time seeing all these rare emergencies, but they’re expected to manage them,” said Dr. Daniel Girzadas, director of the Oak Lawn center and a specialist in emergency medicine at the hospital. “This enables them to get more experience with all these really tough cases.”
The center, which opened last month, is used to train medical residents, paramedics and nurses. Scenarios include injuries from a bomb blast, gunshot wound, car accident and heart attack, to name a few.
The hospital’s four adult mannequins cost about $50,000 apiece and one baby mannequin about $40,000. Although the hospital has used mannequins in the past, the new center augments that training by providing a dedicated space with real medical equipment, including cardiac monitors.
Girzadas said he hopes to increase the number of classes in the future.
During Tuesday’s simulation involving the electric-shock patient, a handful of residents, including Nelson, and several medical students checked the patient’s heart rate and pulse, decided what drugs he needed, ordered X-rays and discovered burns on his right palm and left foot. They finally decided to transfer him to the burn unit at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
“All right, good job, team,” Girzadas said after offering advice several times during the exam.
Residents also examined a 14-month-old boy who had been sick for three or four days with croup. The mom, played by Girzadas, said he made “funny sounds when breathing.”
Girzadas told the residents when they needed to issue clearer orders on which medicines to give and pointed out when they needed to pay closer attention to the baby’s breathing.
The residents correctly diagnosed the baby with bacterial tracheitis, a staph infection of the windpipe.
“I think it just gives you a little more preparedness for when you encounter the real patient,” said Dr. Karis Tekwani, a third-year resident who led the team that examined the baby. “It’s useful because you’re not going to do any harm.”
“You have someone supervising you who can criticize you directly,” said Dr. Matthew Larsen, a first-year resident.