By Michelle E. Shaw, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia)
Copyright 2006 Virginian-Pilot
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
NORFOLK, Va. The sight of the male subject frothing at the mouth shocked Ronnie Early, battalion chief for the Portsmouth Fire Department.
“I was dumbfounded when I walked in there and the manikin was crying, moaning and foaming at the mouth,” Early said. “I’ve been doing this kind of work for 18 years and I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The lifelike manikin that took Early’s breath away is just one of several housed at the Tidewater Emergency Medical Services Council Inc. office, home to some jaw-dropping training technology for emergency response workers, law enforcement officers and others who provide lifesaving medical assistance.The Kent J. Weber Emergency Response Training and Simulation Center isn’t quite finished. Some furnishings haven’t arrived and tile needs to be laid, but the center has begun its work. It will offer training in varied areas, including basic life support, such as CPR, and responding to a biological weapons incident.
“See how far technology has come?” said Judy Shuck, a mass-casualty planning specialist for the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System, a multiagency body charged with managing the region’s response to disasters . “Most people can’t believe it.”
The manikins have the ability to receive intravenous fluids, endure tracheotomies and be resuscitated by an automatic external defibrillator, among other things. If any of the procedures are done incorrectly, or too slowly, the simulated patient will react the same way a real person would, Shuck said.
“The only thing they don’t do is get up and walk,” she joked. “Really, though, this is as close to a patient as you can get with out an actual patient.”
The collection of manikins, which also includes a geriatric patient, a small child and two infants, are expensive pieces of equipment. There’s also a pregnant manikin named Noelle who can give birth to an infant manikin.
Computerized, interactive manikins such as Noelle can cost nearly $20,000. The life like traits of the human simulators, such as the ability to excret e bodily fluids on cue, make the expense well worth it, Shuck said.
Financing for the human simulators and training accessories came from grants, contributions and donations from several organizations, including the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System and the eastern region of the Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association.
Not far from the rooms that house the manikins is a bank of computers and monitors that control the vital signs and bodily functions of several manikins, including Noelle’s unborn child.
“This is all a part of what we call ‘suspending disbelief,’” Shuck said. “When you practice CPR on the thing that you know isn’t real, you do things differently. When the thing you are working on can respond like a human would to what you do, that’s suspending disbelief.”
The manikins aren’t the only feature of the Weber center, which is scheduled to have an open house for clients Sept. 29, said Laura Walker, the center’s director.
The Weber center also will provide classes in areas such as leadership, management, and terrorism and mass-casualty awareness to a wide range of customers, including law enforcement officers and public health workers.
“I think the most remarkable aspect of this center is the multi agency training that we are able to deliver,” Walker said.
Although the classes are certainly important, the manikins might prove to be the most significant and engaging element.
“These manikins will drastically improve the way people respond to incidents in the field,” said Early, who already has set up training sessions at the center for members of the Portsmouth Fire Department . “For me, when I walked in and saw all of that, I wasn’t in training . I was in a real patient situation.”