A paramedic wheels in a victim of a bioterrorism act on the local El line. The man had been standing on the train when the passenger sitting beside him stood and sprayed an unidentified substance into the air. The attacker had a seizure and died immediately, but the victim is still breathing. How should emergency response teams respond?
Fortunately this was not a real-life occurrence but instead a simulation at Evanston Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Firefighters from Evanston, Wilmette, Skokie, Glenview and Wheeling gathered to see how life-like dummies can be used to enhance bioterrorism training programs in their departments.
P.J. Casey, a full-time firefighter and paramedic for Evanston, said he came to the simulation because it’s important to learn how to identify biological threats. Although federal funding increased following the 2001 anthrax attacks, Casey said his department has not seen adequate money for programs.
“There’s more federal money, but it hasn’t trickled down to the department level yet,” he said. “We have a little more training, but we really don’t have the new equipment.”
As the simulation progressed, the paramedics pumped air into the victim’s body, cut off his contaminated clothing and monitored his progress via an attached monitor. The simulator responded as if it were a human, with its heart rate and breathing patterns changing accordingly. The anatomically correct dummies also can be programmed to bleed, drool or urinate on command.
The simulators — provided by Evanston Northwestern Healthcare’s Center for Simulation Technology, Academics and Research — regularly are used to train medical students and interns. The center hopes to begin using the simulators to provide updated training to emergency personnel. Paramedics and fire departments often are familiar with chemical contaminations, but not with nuclear and biological threats because of their rarity.
“You could walk into a situation, and before you know it, you’re contaminated,” said Dr. John Flaherty, director of NU’s Center for Bioterrorism Education and Research. He added that the gut instinct is to run away from the source, but that actually spreads the contamination.
By practicing on life-like simulators, emergency personnel witness many life-threatening scenarios without putting people in danger. If proper care is not given, the dummies “die” and the trainees can watch a video to see what they did wrong.
Flaherty hopes the firefighters, paramedics and police who participate in these simulations will remember appropriate responses to bioterrorism because they have actually seen and touched life-like victims.
“They’re low-frequency events,” Flaherty said, “but hopefully if you’ve seen it, you’ll remember it and spring easily into action.”
