It breathes, bleeds, dies; mannequin trains base medics

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jessica Lockoski
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  He gasps for air to fill his lungs and flickers his eyelids around dilated pupils at the medics hovering over him. He's bleeding, his symptoms are life threatening. It's a good thing he's not really alive. 

He's a high-tech robotic mannequin used to train medical personnel to treat patients with a wide variety of ailments. He bleeds, speaks and possibly, dies depending on the medical treatment he receives from 22nd Medical Group medics. 

He even has a name, Meti. His purpose is to put medics to the test during training sessions so they must decide what treatment he needs to be stabilized. 

"The closer to reality one trains, the better the response in real life," said Maj. Theresa Jones, 22nd Medical Group flight commander of education and training. "You know the saying, 'Train like you fight.'" 

Flesh-like to the touch, the six-foot dummy, METI-man, has been admitted at the McConnell Medical Clinic as a training aid for the past two years. He was designed by and named after the Medical Education Technology Institute in Sarasota, Fla., and costs about $85,000. This same training aid has been introduced to military medical facilities Air Force-wide. 

"Simulating an intervention and actually performing it on a breathing, bleeding patient are two totally different things," said Airman 1st Class Greyson Thompson, 22nd Medical Operations Squadron medic. "This way, we are exposed to some of the things that may actually happen in the field and get hands on experience." 

Meti breathes and has a pulse like a real human; his tongue can swell to make it difficult for medics to intubate his airway for ventilation. Surprisingly, he can even turn into a she, all with a few pushes of the computer's buttons and a feminine hair piece. 

The computer connected to Meti also dictates how he reacts to his treatment. Meti's real-time vital signs begin to improve if medics take the correct actions. 

"It's real life and not just talk," said Major Jones. "Before Meti, we used to say, 'Does the victim have a pulse?'" Then we'd have to say yes or no; it's fast or slow. Now, we just tell them to check like they would on a real patient." 

Like a real human, Meti can also bleed, anywhere from venous (slow) bleeding to full-out arterial spurting. 

"Today, medics had to use a tourniquet on Meti," said Major Jones. "It teaches the medics to be timely because he can regress quickly if they don't react fast enough. He has many scenarios to pick from. Some are cardiac or trauma and some are chemical-warfare." 

"It just feels a lot more real," said Airman Thompson. "We actually stuck an IV in him to give fluids that improved his condition. We could see his vitals improving and that helped the doctor decide the next action to take. That wouldn't be possible with a normal mannequin, so it helps you to realize every action we take determines whether or not the patient takes a turn for better or worse."

Just ask Meti.