Paramedic, EMT students train on bleeding mannequin
BUTLER TWP — “Thirty-two year old male. Multiple gunshot wounds. The scene is safe. Police on scene.”
Simulating a real medical emergency dispatch, that’s all the information a group of emergency responders received before they arrived Saturday, March 14, at the scene at Butler County Community College.
The responders were emergency medical technicians training to become paramedics and a group of students training to become EMTs through the Butler County-funded EMS Academy and paramedic training program.
The injured 32-year-old male was a high-fidelity simulation mannequin that bled fake blood and had a voice that could heard gasping for breath, groaning in pain and calling out for help. “I’m hit. I’m hit.” “I need some help here.” “I’m bleeding bad.”
During an earlier session, a different group of paramedic and EMT students responded to a different mannequin with an amputated right leg and severely injured left arm.
“They have no idea what to expect,” said Rob McLafferty, the Butler County 911 coordinator who teaches in the paramedic training program at BC3 through Impulse Training Academy.
Using a handheld radio, McLafferty dispatched groups of the thee paramedic trainees assisted by three EMT trainees from a classroom to the yard outside where one of the mannequins was laying unresponsive in the grass.
Using an iPad, Chris Anderson, of the Pennsylvania Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Preparedness and Response’s Special Medical Response Team, operates the mannequins, which are owned by the Healthcare Coalition of Southwestern Pennsylvania. He can remotely change the mannequins’ breathing, vital signs and blood loss rate, and control its moans, groans and pleas for help.
Paramedic students James Toles, Sara Acre and Bryton McClure, assessed the injuries and found fake blood escaping from wounds underneath the mannequin while it uttered, “I can’t breath” and “help I’m hurt.”
The blood was seeping from the “through and through” gunshot wounds, McLafferty said.
As the students worked to help the mannequin breath and stop the bleeding, Rick Lippert, the primary paramedic instructor, called out the mannequin’s heart rate and blood pressure.
“I think we handled it pretty well,” McClure said during a debriefing after the mannequin was stabilized and ready to be transported to a hospital.
He said he should have placed a tourniquet higher on the injured leg.
Acre used her fingers to plug a bleeding chest wound before bandages were applied, and carefully worked to prevent a lung collapse before ventilating the airway. She said treating bleeding wounds was a valuable experience.
“Your main focus is keeping the patient alive,” Acre said. “Teamwork is the most important part.”
“It’s a great tool,” McClure said about the mannequin.
